Fatal Flaws
by DasewigGewitter
Summary: AU set approximately 4 years after the first movie. Stark set in motion a project to create the most 'human' android possible, and it appears his dream is about to be realized with the creation of Lilith. Trouble is, no one really understood what that might mean or the complications that might come of it- Stark included. How will the billionaire handle them...and how will she?
1. Just a Machine

_**Author's Note: So much like "Wine and Fire", I've decided to reboot another of my stories. This is a reboot of "Only Human". Unlike the one I did for "Wine and Fire", though, I intend this one to be a multi-chapter story instead of just a single one-and-done deal (although let's face it, "Lady and the Lush" is begging to be turned into something longer, am I right?). Anyway, don't worry too much if you've already read "Only Human" and think it might spoil the ending of this series. I'm not sure where I'll be taking the reboot, but it may not end up in the same place as the one-shot story.**_

* * *

The room was quiet, save for the furious typing of the half-dozen technologists at their respective consoles. That and the faint strains of classical music coming from the headphones of one in particular. The others tuned it out as they tested scripts and recorded bugs and defects in their assigned blocks of code. As for Jaemie, he hardly noticed the music playing in his ears. Hardly noticed the fortress of empty soda cans and takeout bags that littered his desk. His Zen-like focus remained on the screen in front of him- just as he had been doing for the past four weeks.

Jaemie was the senior developer for Stark Innovations, assigned to supervise and execute some of the company's most important tech projects. The one he was working on now involved some of the most complex code he'd ever worked on in his life. Project HPA. He'd been told that the initial program had been the invention of Stark himself, but the billionaire genius had turned it over to Jaemie's team a little over two years ago to finish. They were getting close- six more sprints on the outside.

_And then they'll install it send the final masterpiece over to QC for op testing._

But not if he didn't keep on schedule. Jaemie shook his head and entered another line, hoping to have this section done in the next fifteen minutes before calling it a night. He'd been trying to sort out a solution for the error handling and security protocols on the HPA's sensitive cognitive system. AI was a tricky business. Particularly in regards to all the features that had been in the requirements.

It was all enough to make Jaemie ready to pull his hair out. He'd tried to tell his boss that some of it couldn't be done- that it would lead to a dangerous level of system instability; they'd told him to code it in, anyway. Sure enough, the program couldn't pass a basic health check. Trying to get a workaround took three months or better, with most of his previous attempts to resolve the system instability a miserable failure. All except the most recent, which had very nearly solved the problem.

_Just one flaw that wouldn't iron out no matter _what_ I did to the code._

Rather than chase that dead-end, Jaemie had just commented out all of the old code- just in case he needed it for reference- and started over with a different approach. So far, it had been working. No signs of instability. Just had to write in some non-functional code to finish it off. He yawned, glancing at the clock in the bottom right-hand corner of his monitor. Seven forty-five. Far later than he had intended to be here tonight. Fingers flying over the keys, he added the last several dozen lines of code.

_Done. Finally that piece is done._

Well, not _quite_ done. He still had to go back and delete out all the old code now that he didn't need it anymore. But he had promised Angela that he'd be home for dinner at least _one_ evening this week. And he hadn't seen the kids since Saturday. If he didn't leave now, he'd miss his train and the next one would put him home after nine.

"The hell with this," he muttered to himself. "I'll come in early tomorrow and clean up the old code. It's not like it'll make a difference if it's not done tonight."

With that, Jaemie saved his work into the project folder on the shared drive, shut down his machine and got up from his workstation. He bid goodnight to his co-workers.

"Hey guys- don't work yourselves to death, yeah? After all, we're just programming machines."

**Six Months Later**

Another workday, another paycheck. The employees working the quality control department at Stark Innovations had arrived early that morning- as they did _every_ morning- to tackle the long list of projects that would come their way. Always something new that the creative geniuses in research and development thought might be the next big hit on the market. This was the place where those aspiration dreams met clinical reality.

"So what's it today, Grant," a lanky fellow with shaggy brown hair and a day's growth of beard on his chin asked, hanging his coat on a hook.

The second man looked up from his phone, stuffed it in his pocket and gave a half-hearted shrug. "Dunno. Production hasn't dropped anything off yet. Connie must have been asleep on the job this morning."

"Even if I was, I'd still do twice the job of you two put together," a wry, female voice remarked from the doorway. The woman in question strode in and motioned to a crew of six to follow her. "I hope you boys are ready to work today, too. This one's a tall order."

Grant jabbed a thumb at his partner and retorted, "There's not nuthin' too tall for Tom to handle."

The group laughed at his jest- even Tom. He would get his stockier colleague back in due course of the day, anyway. The two ribbed one another all the time, and their antics were well-known. As were their good-natured verbal duels with the tenacious production manager. In _that_ showdown, the two gentlemen rarely won a round. But against one another, they were fairly evenly matched.

Once the chuckles died down, the two men took stock of the large crates that had been wheeled into their lab.

"Jesus, Connie. Just what _is_ all that?"

"Guess."

After a moment or two, he crossed his arms and scrunched his face in pure annoyance.

"Oh no. Don't tell me-"

"Yep. HPA's again."

Her answer was met with a chorus of pained groans and mutinous threats about quitting. She just let them complain until at last Tom queried, "Why are we wasting our time with this boondoggle?"

"Because that's what they want."

Grant's eyebrows drew together.

"How long did you know this was coming, Connie? I bet you've been building the units at least four months out before they were ready for QC. A little head's up would have been nice, you know."

"Couldn't do it, guys. Sorry," she apologized with a rueful shake of her head. "As it was, they made us all swear to secrecy. I had the crew working on these nights for the last several weeks because I couldn't risk word getting out on the floor."

"All right, fine. But we tested the last set what- almost a _year_ ago. We spent a whole week on it and not one of the units passed a simple health check. No offense, but I don't want to go through that again for nothing."

"I know, I know. They told me they've got the programming sorted out this time, so give these the whole battery of tests."

Knowing that there wasn't much of a choice, the man combed a hand through his shock of red hair and sighed. He nodded to the thick manila folder in her hand, musing irritably, "I guess that's the scripts?"

"Yeah." She passed it over to him. "Good luck."

With that, the production foreman left them to it. Off to start working on the next project, no doubt. Meanwhile, Grant and Tom shared a look of mutual resignation to several days of painstaking work. Work that would in all likelihood end the same way it had before. No use in putting it off, though. As Connie said, the bosses wanted this done. So they'd do it.

They got down to the business of opening the crates, choosing at random. As the front panel of the first clattered loudly to the floor, the men got their first glimpse at the HPA unit inside. Grant shot Tom a disbelieving look.

"This has got to be some kind of joke. Connie's tryin' to pull one over on us and got one of the guys on the line in on it."

Tom shook his head.

"I know all the guys who _might_ be willing to go in on something like this." He gestured to the HPA. "That ain't one of them."

"Well, it sure as shit ain't no damned robot, either. I mean, _look_ at him."

"I _am_ looking."

"Then you can't be telling me you think it's really a machine."

Eventually, Tom approached the crate and reached out to the HPA unit carefully packaged inside. He poked gingerly at its forearm. When that produced no response, he prodded at its slightly slack jaw. Still nothing, and so Tom reluctantly felt for a pulse at the throat. With a look over his shoulder, he told Grant, "Either it's exactly that, or it's a corpse."

"Bullshit."

"Seriously. Check for yourself if you don't believe me."

After several minutes of debate and probing, both men agreed that they were looking at a miracle of technology. On the outside, synthetic tissues that perfectly replicated natural skin, hair and nail; inside, an engineering marvel that translated biological systems into complex bionics. The attention to detail was astounding, and left them speechless for some time.

Grant finally found his voice, "Well, I think Connie was right. This is going to be one tall order."

* * *

Tony glanced at his watch for the hundredth time in the last thirty minutes. He'd been sitting in the CEO's office of Stark Innovations for the past two hours- which felt more like two million _years_\- as the woman walked through a filing cabinet's worth of proposals, earnings and the like. Quite possibly the most boring aspect of business. And one Tony tried to avoid at all costs.

But Pepper hadn't been able to make this quarterly meeting with this division of the Stark business empire, and so he got _voluntold_ that it was _his_ business and _he_ needed to make himself available. When she put it like that…well, you just do what you're told. Even if you're Tony Stark.

_Still, two hours feels excessive,_ he pouted.

"Mr. Stark?"

Belatedly, he realized that she had asked him a question and had been waiting for several minutes for him to respond. Tony tried desperately to recall what she might have said, but couldn't bring the words to focus. No choice; he'd just have to bluff an answer.

"It all looks like you've got business handled, Mallory. Pepper has been keeping me up to date- she's said great things and I am sure the next quarter is going to perform well."

"Why thank you, Mr. Stark." She gathered up the reports and slipped them into a folder. "We're especially excited at the prospect of launching the new line of HPA's."

He must have let his mind wander more than he thought, not recognizing what that might have stood for. Tony tried not to sound too sheepish as he queried, "Which ones were those again? Sorry- still getting used to all the acronyms."

"Not at all. Forgive me for not having mentioned it before. That's our designation for _your_ project, Mr. Stark. Humanoid Personal Assistants. HPA's."

Tony tried not to cringe at the title. His brainchild it might have been, but someone _else_ must have come up with that name. Certainly nothing _he_ would have devised. And it was a far cry from what he'd intended. 'Personal Assistants'? What he'd _wanted_ was to design something on the cutting edge of bionic technology- push the envelope when it came to blurring the lines between human and machine.

The idea had come to him almost five years ago. A side project that he'd fiddled with off and on at first in his own private lab upstairs. Well, more like an obsession there for a while. He'd sunk a decent chunk of his time trying to get it to work the way he wanted. But then he got too busy with the whole business with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the team and had to decide to shelve the idea entirely or turn it over to his team of developers.

It hadn't been easy to lose control of the project, but he'd done the latter rather than to see it die altogether. Since then, he'd been kept loosely apprised of their progress. The first dozen generations of development had been hopelessly flawed, but these last few rounds had shown vast improvement. And from what Mallory just said, maybe they finally had something.

_What a waste to market it as a 'personal assistant', though._

He supposed that was the other side of business that he hated. They couldn't just create for the sake of creating something. It had to be 'marketable'. Something that would turn a profit to justify the resources that went into building it. Even if he told them that he honestly didn't care about the money. Tony had more money than he knew what to do with, so he could certainly afford to spend it on whatever he liked.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he focused on the positive: a potential launch of his project- whatever they might have decided to call it. Tony leaned forward in his chair and circled back to her original comment.

"My project, you say. And you think we might be close to an official launch?"

"Fairly confident. I received word that production finished the build phase of the new models yesterday, and so now we're moving into quality control. Our lead analysts, Tom and Grant, should be testing them starting today."

Now that sounded a hell of a lot more interesting than sitting in this office all afternoon. Tony preferred to be hands-on with the actual _creation_ process. He cast Mallory a hopeful look.

"If we're done here, I'd love to get down to the lab and have a look for myself at how it's going."

"Naturally. I'll have Connie take you down to the main floor."

She walked over to her desk and pressed a button on her desk phone. It rang several times on speaker before someone picked up at the other end.

"What's up, boss?"

"Connie, could you step upstairs for a minute?"

"I uh-" a shout from somewhere in the background interrupted her answer. She must have held the receiver at a distance as she yelled back, "Well get Charlie to replace the timing belt ASAP. We need that machine up and running." A second later, Connie was back. "Sorry. Bit of organized chaos down here this morning. I'll be up in a jiffy."

"Thanks."

The line went dead, leaving the two of them to wait. Fortunately, it wasn't long before they heard a knock at the door. Mallory opened it to reveal the once familiar face of the woman who had run the production floor of Stark Innovations almost since its inception. He'd hired her personally after snagging her from under the nose of his biggest rival. He beamed at her as her eyes widened in recognition.

"You're looking good as always, Doll."

"Pfft," she scoffed with a wave. "Always the flatterer, Stark. What are you doing here today? Haven't seen you hanging around this part of the Tower in months."

_Once upon a time, I used to be here _every _day, _he thought with some regret. _Now I'm a guest at my own company._

"Mr. Stark is interested in seeing how the HPA testing is coming along, Connie. Would you be able to run him downstairs and put him in touch with Tom and Grant?"

"You bet.' With a tip of her head that caused her mop of corkscrew curls to bounce, the woman gestured for him to follow. "C'mon, then and we'll get you there straight away, Mr. Stark. I'm sure the guys could use some excitement to perk up their afternoon."

* * *

They couldn't spend all day wondering at how it had been done; they had a job to do. While Tom got the testing equipment set up, Grant went about the business of activating the HPA unit. Wasn't easy. The switch was nearly invisible, and he would have never found the tiny button at the base of its skull if the test script folder hadn't provided the location. But once he did find it, the unit booted up with an almost inaudible hum that quieted within seconds.

"Don't even want to _think_ about the size of the operation manual for this thing," he muttered to himself. "Or the cost of repairs."

Not their problem; if the batch of units managed to pass QC, some _other_ poor sap would have the painstaking job of writing the tech manual.

He and Tom put the HPA through its paces, taking diagnostic readings and making notes as they went. They followed the list of testing that the developers and production teams wanted done. Quite the list, too. Sixty pages' worth. And the whole time, the HPA just stared on, unconcerned and disinterested. It didn't even speak until they got to the interactive part of the scripts.

It took all morning and most of the afternoon, but at last they finished. Tom recorded the last test result and rubbed a hand across his face.

"Never would have believed it, but the thing passed. They must have thrown every developer at this- not to mention all of Connie's department."

"Must have." Grant checked his watch before asking, "We've got an hour before end of the day. Did you want to get started on the next one, or just wait until tomorrow?"

"We could at least get it set up and do the initial boot-up. Then we'll be ready to go in the morning."

He grabbed the crowbar and pried open the nearest crate. Inside, their second test unit waited, dormant and inactivated as the first had been. Grant shook his head with a bemused snort.

"Should've seen that coming. Of course they'd want _both_ versions. I guess we better get it out of there."

To the casual bystander, 'it' in question appeared to be a petite woman standing 5'3" with olive skin and hair the shade of café noir. Even in her dormant state, her chin seemed to be set at a stubborn angle, dimpled with a slight cleft. Most of her facial features seemed to be influenced by either French or Creole heritage. A retroussé nose; lips that formed a cupid's bow; wide-set eyes.

Grant paid little attention to any of that as he went about getting the HPA positioned and ready for testing. Plugging all of the monitoring wires into hidden ports in its scalp. And when he'd finished with that, he depressed the power button. This time, the hum of activation was accompanied by an odd sound- almost like high voltage lines buzzing in the rain. As before, though, the sound faded away a moment later as the HPA's eyes opened for the first time.

They shrugged it off as nothing important and set down to get started.

"Who the hell are you!?" the HPA demanded in a quavering, panic-laden voice. Its head swiveled around to take in its surroundings. "Wh-where _am_ I!?"

The frantic cries startled both men, not having expected the unit to speak. They stood, dumbfounded, as its hands reached for the wires and began to rip them out. Being the closer of the two, Grant reached out to prevent it from doing any further damage. The HPA shrugged him off with no effort at all, trying to rise from the chair. And that was when it must have registered its state of undress.

"What have you done with my clothes!?" The HPA moved fast, finding cover behind one of the packing crates, fear in its eyes. "What do you want with me!?"

The two men were genuinely perplexed at the behavior. They'd had no trouble from the other unit. Certainly no reaction to equal the panic they were seeing this time. Tom raised his hands in a non-threatening gesture and kept at a distance as he explained, "We're just running tests to make sure you are operating according to the design spec. They brought you here from production the way you are- the clothes really aren't a necessity at this point."

"The hell they aren't," it snarled back angrily. "I want them right now!"

"Really, it's just easier to run tests without them."

That assurance didn't help at all. The HPA glared at him from behind the crate and spat out, "_Tests_? What sort of tests? And what do you mean I got here from 'production', anyway?"

Uneasy, Tom and Grant exchanged a look. If they didn't know better, they might think the HPA didn't realize that it was a machine. It behaved as though….it thought it was truly human. Seemed impossible, but how else could they explain what they were seeing? That being said, the specs didn't mention _anything_ about that feature in the programming. Whatever this was, it wasn't what the developers had intended.

"You think rebooting it might fix the problem," Grant suggested. "Otherwise, we'll have to log this as a serious defect and kick the whole batch back."

"I dunno. Maybe. We could try."

In theory. The HPA listened to their exchange with narrowed, suspicious eyes. When Grant tried to approach, it held him off and edged further away. "You just stay where you are and don't touch me."

"Look, I know you don't understand, but something didn't work right with your initial boot-up. We need to reset you and see if we can fix it."

"Stop talking about me like I'm some kind of machine!"

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but that's what you are."

* * *

They took the shortest route possible through the floor, winding swiftly through the maze of offices that belonged to executives of the various companies that made up his business empire. Tony tried to keep a low profile to avoid getting stopped by any of the others. He'd been dodging Richard for weeks and didn't have the patience to deal with him today.

To his relief, no one interrupted their journey to the elevators. From there, it was a swift ride down three floors. Stark Innovations occupied the eastern half of the floor; the other was home to several other divisions that headquartered in the Tower. Connie led them through a set of security doors that kept general visitors out of the closely guarded production area.

At the far end of the large space, a corner had been sectioned off into a separate room. The QC lab. Tony probably could have found it on his own, but hadn't wanted to argue with Mallory about needing an escort. Besides, it couldn't hurt to have Connie keeping him from getting distracted by all the activity happening on the floor. She headed straight for the lab.

When they got close, the sound of raised voices from inside drew the notice of everyone in earshot. Several heads jerked around at an infuriated shout that raised the hairs on the back of Tony's neck.

_"I AM NOT A MACHINE!"_

He and the production manager froze in their tracks. Tony cast her a sideways look and remarked, "It sounds as though your quality control department is already having an eventful day."

She shot him a sharp glance in return.

"Yeah, no kidding."

From inside, they heard a tremendous crash- rather, several of them- and more shouts carried over the din. Uttering a string of curses, Connie rushed to the door and yanked it open. Tony followed close on her heels. The room was in a state of total disaster. Three large crates had been pushed over. He caught a glimpse of a pale-fingered hand protruding from beneath the wreckage of one, a rip in the synthetic skin revealing the intricate machinery below. Various equipment had been strewn about. Definitely broken.

He and Connie stared at the destruction, all of which detracted their attention away from the source. It offered the culprit an opportunity to launch another offensive. Tony barely had time to duck out of the way as a rack of glass test tubes sailed directly at his head. It shattered against the wall behind him.

"Leave me alone- all of you just _leave me alone_!"

The speaker of those words crouched behind one of the fallen crates, but not before he'd gotten a glimpse of sable hair and hazel eyes. The latter of which held equal measures of fury and fear.

"What in the hell is going on in here," Connie demanded.

A thickset gentleman cowering behind a cabinet looked up at her. He kept all extremities out of sight- and out of range- as he replied, "The HPA has some kind of programming defect. Tom and I think it was there before we got started, but it went crazy and won't let us try to reboot."

Another projectile arced across the room with deadly accuracy, catching the production manager in the ribs. Thankfully, this one was only a chunk of the dense crate filler material and did no more than knock the woman off-balance. She let it bounce off her and set her hands on her hips.

"What sort of 'defect', Grant?"

"You heard what it said a moment ago," he told her with a jerk of his head. "It doesn't recognize that it's a machine. The damned thing keeps insisting it's _human_."

The analyst's opinion couldn't be clearer. He talked about the discovery as if it were an inconvenience- a mistake. He'd gone so far as to call it a _defect_. The very thing that Tony had been hoping to create and these two were going to wipe it out of existence before anyone even had a chance to explore the possibilities of what it might mean. Infuriated, he laid into the men.

"An android believes herself to be human and your first reaction is to log it as a defect and reboot!? Are you insane? Never mind the setback to technology and science, but did you not even think that what you were doing could be considered tantamount to _murder_?"

Grant regarded him as if only just noticing his presence. And then his glance slid back to the woman on his right.

"Who's the suit, Connie? He's not one of those activist wackos, is he- whining about the 'rights of machines'?"

Connie sucked in her breath with a hiss, wincing and pinching the bridge of her nose. Her voice carried a thread of exasperation as she told him, "Actually, this is Tony Stark. He came down to see the progress we've made on his HPA project."

"Oh." A half-second pause. "Dammit."

If Tony hadn't been so angry, he might have found it amusing the way the man's complexion paled to a greenish-grey. Probably thinking he could kiss his job goodbye. Given what Tony had just seen and heard, he was inclined to have both analysts fired on the spot. An impulsive decision, and one he wasn't sure he could afford to make. So although it chafed him to let the comment go, let it go he did.

_I will definitely be _recommending_ it the second I speak with Mallory. Make no mistake, your days are numbered in my employ._

"Way to stick your foot in your mouth to the big boss himself, Grant," another male voice floated up from behind a crate. The speaker dared pop his head up long enough to toss a crumpled wad of paper at the analyst. "As if we weren't already in hot water enough."

"Tom, shup up, will ya? You're not helping."

Dismissing both men, Tony moved on to what really mattered. He scanned the opposite side of the room, looking for signs of the android. The last he'd seen, she had been behind one of the taller crates near the wall. Very possible she could have moved while they were talking. Tony knew of one likely way he might get an idea where she was. Bracing for a renewed assault, he took a step further into the room, offering himself as a target.

As predicted, the second he moved, she launched another volley and reissued her command, warning, "Stay back- you just…stay away!"

_Well, let's just hope you really do behave like a human, or this might not work._

Tony grinned with all the good-natured charm that had disarmed many an irate female and insisted cheerfully, "Now that I just can't do, Doll. Not when it comes to a lovely lady such as yourself."

* * *

I didn't trust him, this Tony Stark. Nor did I _want_ to trust him.

My mind raced, trying desperately to make sense of my situation. How did I end up in this room? Why couldn't I remember anything before waking up here? Where _was_ 'here', anyway? I had no answers to any of those questions- or the thousand _others_ that spun around inside my head.

_Just the one those- _my eyes narrowed in pointed dislike- people_…gave me._

A machine, they'd said. I refused to believe that to be true, even if I couldn't quite explain why. Maybe nothing more than intuition. But it was telling me that they were wrong. My gaze landed drifted down to study my hand. It gripped the large wooden box, veins forming a branching pattern along the back of it. Surely _that_ was enough to prove I couldn't be a mere robot, or android…or whatever _they_ called me.

None of those thoughts was helping me decide what to do. Cautiously, I peered over the top of the box to get another look at Stark. He stood several feet away. Still smiling. Dark eyes; dark hair. As the one called 'Grant' had said, he was indeed wearing a suit. The blazer had been left unbuttoned and he wore no necktie, giving the ensemble a somewhat casual look. Even his whole demeanor gave the impression of someone who liked to have a good time more often than not.

At the same time, I sensed he was more than capable of being very serious if the situation warranted. Hadn't I just witnessed it for myself? He'd certainly berated the men who'd wanted to 'reboot' me with considerable vehemence. Some of that fury lingered in his expression, despite the affable smile. And then he took another step forward. I reached for something else to hurl at him.

Just as I was about to let it loose, Stark held up both hands in supplication and protested, "Now before you go trying to dent my head again, I'd like to try talking this out like reasonable people."

I weighed the words, trying to gauge whether he was truly meant them, or if he was merely placating me. But, all things considered, I didn't have that many options. Sooner or later, I would run out of ammunition. Not to mention that I was buck naked, and even if I managed to get out of this room, who knew what awaited me on the other side of the door. My only hope at this point rested on the trustworthiness of this complete stranger.

_Well, Tony Stark, you better be sincere. And if you're not, I swear I'll do everything I can to take you down before I let you or anyone else get their hands on me._

From my hiding place, I called out, "Define 'reasonable'."

"Now that's what I like to hear. We're making progress, Doll." It was the second time he'd called me 'Doll'. I wondered if it was my name, since I couldn't remember what it was. And then he interrupted that line of thought by saying, "In my experience, it involves a calm, rational conversation- preferably face to face- where we come to an understanding. How's that sound?"

I couldn't deny that it _did_ sound reasonable. But as I glanced down at myself, I worried about the 'face to face' aspect. Would he expect me to go out there as I was? I decided to find out.

"It depends- does your scenario include wearing clothes?"

He frowned in obvious puzzlement. "Of course it does."

"Well, then I want some before I'm coming out there."

"What do you mean you-" Stark turned to the woman standing just behind him. "Does she seriously not have _any_ clothes?"

"Why bother? They'd just be in the way for the tests Tom and Grant would have to run."

He muttered something intelligible under his breath and shrugged out of his blazer. As he tossed it in my direction Stark shouted, "Incoming!"

The jacket landed haphazardly on the far side of the crate, nearly slipping over the edge facing the rest of the room. I managed to catch hold of one of the sleeves before it was out of reach, drawing it back towards me so that I could put it on. The finely woven cashmere was still slightly warm and I caught the faint scent of expensive cologne. Shrugging into the garment, I drew the edges closed and was glad that my short stature meant that its hemline came to the top of my thighs.

Still felt uncomfortable, but not quite so _vulnerable_.

"Better?"

"A little, yes." After a pause, I added, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. We'll find you something else that will be more appropriate in a bit. In the meantime- ready to come out of there?"

I wasn't, really. But I stepped around the side of the crate, anyway, casting nervous looks around the room to keep an eye on where the first two men might be lurking. Didn't see either of them, but it didn't mean they weren't there.

By the time I'd brought my attention back to the center of the room, I'd missed most of Stark's reaction. What little I did see left me with the impression he'd been surprised. Recovering quickly, he flashed me a generous smile and gestured towards the door with one hand.

"What say we find a more inviting place to have ourselves a chat?"

I didn't move.

"And where might _that_ be?"

"I was thinking you might like a view of New York from the rooftop terrace, since it's such a nice day out. Besides, you don't really want to talk _here_, do you?"

No, I didn't. But I wasn't quite ready to go along with his suggestion until he answered one last question.

"And what about the other two men?"

"Not coming with us," he assured me with a pointed look to the side. "I expect they'll be rather busy tidying up. Right?"

"Uh, yes, Mr. Stark," a voice from behind one of the other crates said meekly, intimidated.

Whoever this Tony Stark was, he was clearly someone of importance. Tom had called him the 'big boss' a moment ago. I didn't know what that meant, but it was a position that commanded respect. I wondered what that entailed for someone in my position. What he might expect from me. I hoped that a man who demanded respect was equally capable of giving it.

"Shall we leave the gentlemen to their work, Doll," Stark queried, reclaiming my attention.

I nodded, still somewhat intimidated by him myself. "All right."

Very slowly, I picked my way across the room, having to step over and around obstacles in my path. I'd almost reached Stark when I passed by the overturned crate nearest the door. I froze, eyes riveted on the floor. Well, not on the floor, really.

On the outstretched hand lying motionlessly on it.

In my panic to keep Tom and Grant away from me, I hadn't been paying much attention to the crates, or what had been inside them. They'd been a means to an end. But now…now I came face to face with something I wasn't prepared for. At first, I tried to convince myself I wasn't seeing what I was seeing- that I _couldn't_ be. The longer I stared, the more I couldn't deny it. Not when the skin covering the hand had been torn to expose what had to be the most complex piece of machinery I'd ever seen.

_No,_ I denied. _No it _can't_ be true. If that's- then I'm-_

"Hey, Doll, you okay?"

Stark's voice came from far away, even though he was standing just a few feet from me. Ignoring him, I lifted a shaky hand in front of my eyes and turned it this way and that. Trembling. On the verge of hysteria. Unwilling to admit that I might not be what I thought I was. And in that desperate moment, I needed some way to prove to myself that I was human.

I spotted a shard of metal embedded in the box and grabbed it. The sharp edge cut into my palm, but I was too intent on my goal to notice. Shoving the sleeve of the jacket out of the way, I used it to rip into my own forearm with one decisive slash. A jagged tear opened up, blood welling in the wound. I almost breathed a sigh of relief, despite knowing the hideous pain that was sure to follow. And follow it did, throbbing up the length of my arm and straight into my brain.

But that relief was short-lived. With the bloody metal shard still gripped tightly in my other hand, I stared at the slice in my arm. Beneath the layers of slashed tissue lie the unmistakable hallmarks of a machine.

_A prosthetic. It has to be just the arm. I must have been in an accident and lost my real arm. This _can't_ be me._

I was about cut into my leg to prove it when a pair of hands covered mine and held it still. Stark's. His voice was quiet, despite the urgency threading through it as he said, "Hey now, put that down, okay?"

"Let me go!"

"Nope. Can't do it, Doll. Not when you're hell-bent on hurting yourself."

He tugged the metal out of my hand and tossed it aside. Meanwhile, I continue to stare intently at my injured arm. The initial pain I'd felt had faded to a muted ache- little more than a minor discomfort. The gash was already closing. Healing faster than _should_ have been possible. Repairing itself as if…programmed.

_Nanotechnology._

My whole body tremored with the effort to hold onto the denial of what that meant. A hysterical laugh bubbled up from deep within, turning to helpless sobs as my knees gave out and I collapsed to the floor. Stark knelt down next to me, but I paid him no attention. I curled into the fetal position and just kept sobbing.

"I'm not a machine. I _can't_ be a machine."


	2. Two Weeks

For several minutes, the four of them could do nothing but look on as she repeated her desperate, keening that she couldn't be a machine. They were still in a bit of shock from seeing her take that shard of metal to her arm. Lucky that he'd reacted in time before she tried to carve up anything else, but once she'd collapsed, none of them knew quite what to do. On his part, Tony had been wholly unprepared for the meltdown.

_You should have been, _a voice in his head admonished him. _What did you _expect_ to happen when she realized she wasn't human? Or did you just not think that far ahead?_

He was ashamed to say that he hadn't. Tony had seen himself as the pioneer- forging ahead to break new technological ground. Had been so focused on pushing the development team to blur that line that he hadn't stopped to consider any potential ramifications if they succeeded. And being the pioneer, he didn't have the mistakes of others to serve as a warning. In retrospect, he ought to have been more cautious.

_A little too late to be saying that now._

_I can fix this, _he insisted._ I _will_ fix this._

While Connie remained frozen in place, Tony knelt down beside the prone form of the humanoid. She'd curled onto her left side, hair spilling over her shoulder and across her face. With the jacket sleeve still bunched at her elbow, he could see the cut on her right arm. It had already sealed itself to leave behind an angry, red line, and even that was fading as the minutes passed. Tony gingerly set a hand on her shoulder and tried to think of _something_ to say.

"Doll? Hey, we're gonna sort this out, okay?"

She continued to sob, whole body shaking as if it could come apart trying to hold everything in. In between, her recitation of those four words- 'I'm not a machine'- never stopped. He wasn't sure she'd even heard him over them, and glanced over his shoulder to Connie.

"I think we need to focus on getting her calmed down- is there anything in this lab we could use to sedate her?"

"I don't know- Tom?"

"Not the sort of thing we need around here. Our test subjects are usually the kind that you switch on and off," the man replied. He'd come out from his hiding place to stand next to Connie. When he saw Tony's hard stare, he added, "Um, no offense meant."

He didn't bother to acknowledge the half-given apology. He was about to consider calling upstairs to Bruce and have him bring down something from his lab, but then Grant crossed the room to a coatrack near the door. After a minute or two of rummaging around through various pockets, the redhead produced a bottle.

"Not sure if it'll help, but this is Diazepam- Valium, you know? My wife has a prescription to help with her anxiety attacks, and I happened to pick up her refill on the way in this morning." He shrugged. "I mean, I dunno if we can give it something like this. The first round of tests was just meant to clear the basic operation system."

Tony weighed the options. They could run the risk that the chemical compounds in the drug would do irreparable harm to her system. On the other hand, he was worried if they couldn't get her calmed down that the stress would overload her programming and damage her regardless. Neither option thrilled him.

"Stark- it's your call," Connie said.

"I think we'll have to go for it."

"Question," Tom spoke up. "How are you going to get it to ingest the pill? If it's already worked itself into this state…"

The analyst had a point. She was past the point of reasoning, so he wasn't going to convince her to swallow the pill on her own. Tony didn't relish the idea if getting bit if he tried to force feed it to her. No telling what sort of bite force a bionic jaw might have, and he'd rather not find out the hard way. And even if he _did_ manage to get her to take it, she'd likely choke on the damned thing.

"It's intramuscular, not oral," Grant piped up, providing a solution to the dilemma. "Della never could swallow pills, so we had to go with injections. But I, ah, don't have a syringe on me."

"I think we might have one in the cabinet on your right. Middle shelf."

Grant followed Tom's directions and went looking for what they needed. Tony remained at the humanoid's side, using his hand to trace gentle, reassuring circles along her back. The whole time, he kept telling her that everything would be all right.

_Glad I don't have to say that in front of the Trickster. This isn't a time I want to find out that I'm lying._

When Grant brought the bottle and syringe over, he raised his shoulders in a shrug and said, "Shouldn't really use a plastic one, but it's all we had."

"Under the circumstances, I doubt anyone will be reporting us to the AMA," Tony replied drily as he accepted the instrument. "I've never given an injection of this before- what's the dose and where does it go?"

"They say it can be as much as 10 mg, but its build is about the same as Della's, so I'd say 5 mg just to be safe. She usually takes it in her bicep."

Wishing he had the time to call Bruce down to do this, Tony stuck the needle in the bottle and drew back until the bottom of the plunger was even with the 5 mg line. But then it was a question of getting to her upper arm. She was still wearing his blazer and it wasn't like he could just take it off when she wasn't wearing anything beneath it. At first, Tony tried pushing the sleeve up, but it wouldn't go far enough.

_Looks like I'll have to pull back the collar._

Ignoring the twinge to his conscience, he adjusted the jacket so that it exposed most of her right clavicle, shoulder and upper arm. Kept his eyes averted from anything else as best as he could. Her response was immediate, and she tugged at the blazer weakly in an effort to cover herself. Made him feel all the worse. Tony gritted his teeth and held firm just long enough to inject the Diazepam. Once he'd finished, he put the jacket back to rights.

_And now we wait to see if it does more harm than good. Or if it'll have any effect at all._

"How long before it'll kick in?"

"Takes longer than the pills- could take a half hour or could be as little as fifteen minutes. The doctor warned that when given this way it'd be a bit…random."

_Well, that's just great, isn't it?_

They would just have to let it take its course and hope for the best. Fifteen minutes was bad enough, but a half hour was a damned longed time to wait. Tony supposed that he might as well spend that time doing something more productive than twiddling his thumbs. He thought he hit on something that could distract him for a while.

"Hey Connie," he asked. "You know if any of the developers are in today? I want to know how this happened."

"I'll call up there. They work different shifts depending of the current project."

She stepped away and pulled a cell phone out of her hip pocket. He listened with half an ear as she spoke to someone on the other end of the line, most of his focus on the humanoid. Watching for signs that the drug was kicking in and feeling rather discouraged as the minutes ticked by with no change in her condition.

"Stark?" His head shot up. "Jaemie says he'll be right down. He was the lead for the HPAs."

"Good. That's the man I want to talk to."

Another ten minutes dragged by while they waited for the programmer to reach the QC lab. Tony breathed an inward sigh of relief when the humanoid's cries quieted and the tension ran out of her body. A lucky break. The Diazepam was actually working. Carefully, he brushed the hair away from her face; a slight frown marred the smooth, olive skin of her forehead, but her eyes had drifted closed.

"Holy crow- what happened in here?" exclaimed a sandy-haired man in his late thirties who must have been Jaemie. He took in the room with wide eyes before they landed square on Tony with a jolt of recognition. "Mr. Stark! Connie said she had an emergency down here, but I wasn't expecting…" That's when he saw the humanoid. "Oh hell. Did it go berserk and trash the lab?"

"I wouldn't say _berserk_," Tony answered, an edge creeping into his voice. "But she thought she was human. Not surprisingly, she did not react well when told she wasn't. We had to sedate her after she realized we were telling the truth."

Jaemie shook his head.

"That wasn't in my code. I mean, in the initial models, we _tried_ to incorporate programming that mimicked the self-awareness that humans possess. But it failed hard core, so I had to scrap it out of the final code."

"Define 'failed'."

"In our dev environment upstairs, the program would destabilize whenever we introduced an interaction variable to test it. The whole damned thing would freeze and crash the servers. We just couldn't get it to work with any sort of reliability and gave up."

A very near description to the meltdown that they'd just witnessed, prompting him to ask, "If that's the case, why is she acting like the original code has been installed?"

"I honestly don't know. I cleared all of it out once I'd written the replacement scripts. Unless…"

The man trailed off without finishing his sentence. Tony suspected whatever came next would be worth hearing, though he didn't expect to like it.

"Unless?"

"It was late. I left the commented code in overnight and wiped it first thing in the morning. But I uploaded it to the server before I went home. I suppose it's_ possible_ that someone grabbed that before I got in, thinking it was ready to upload to prod. They might not have checked back to see I had updated the file with the clean code."

_More like very probable_. Tony's gaze dropped to the humanoid. _Still doesn't explain how she's operating on what should be deactivated code._

It was a place to start, though. He'd get her to his own lab and comb through the every line to find out what _exactly_ happened. With any luck, he'd be able to untangle this disaster. Tony scooped her up in his arms and regarded the other four grimly.

"I'll take care of this one, but I recommend that you wipe and reload the clean code on any of the others." His attention caught on the overturned crate, unable to ignore the hand protruding from it. The one that had triggered her episode. "If any of them are salvageable, anyway."

"Of course, Mr. Stark."

Connie, who'd been silent throughout the exchange, chose that moment to voice a question, asking, "What'll you do if you can't fix that one?"

Tony didn't have an answer. Rather, he didn't want to give the answer he knew he ought to say. And so after a long pause, he set his jaw in stubborn determination, willing himself to believe the words he said as he passed by.

"I'll fix her."

* * *

Bruce sat in his lab, staring at the computer monitor in annoyance. As he'd been doing for the past hour. Scientific research was a key component of his daily routine, but there were certain aspects of it that he could really do without. Honestly, aspects that he should be delegating to a research assistant. Only he didn't have one. Rather, didn't_ want_ one.

_No, more like couldn't _get_ one,_ he amended with a dose of cynicism. From deep within, he felt the restless stirring of 'the other guy'. Ready to break free at the slightest hint of anger. _And that's exactly the reason why._

Even alone, reining in the temptation to shift into the raging green beast everyone knew as 'Hulk' was a daily struggle. The team was all he could handle; and were the only ones who could handle _him_. They understood the boundaries that divided 'Bruce' from 'the other guy', and had learned to accept the risk of crossing those boundaries. And yet even with them, he kept contact limited where possible. Most of his time was spent down here in his lab- the sanctuary where he could retreat and maintain balance.

Having another person constantly underfoot would test the limits of his control. And who would even _apply_ for the position? What medical student or biologist would want to work next to someone who could come unhinged at any moment and snap them in half? It would take nerves of steel.

_Face it, you're not going to find anyone like that, so just get used to doing all the work yourself._

With a sigh, he was about to set himself to the task- as unpleasant as it might be- when he heard the elevators chime out in the hall. Only one person would be coming to this floor. Stark's lab occupied the other half, but Bruce thought it odd that he would be coming down here at this time of day; Stark tended to be a night owl, and worked best around two or three in the morning. But sure enough, when he swiveled around to face the glass that divided his office from the rest of the floor, he saw the billionaire genius emerge from the elevator.

_Is he…_carrying_ someone?_

All thoughts of his research were pushed to the background as he shifted gears and readied himself to offer medical help. Bruce abandoned his computer and met his fellow Avenger in the hall where they both came to a full stop. Stark did indeed have a woman in his arms, and while he couldn't see her face, Bruce could tell that she wasn't anyone from the team. Perhaps she was one of Fury's agents; he hadn't met them all.

"Who's that," he asked with a nod.

"Don't know her name yet."

_So…not likely she's one of Fury's agents, then._

Leaving the subject of her name for later, he went on to the more critical question. "Is she hurt?"

"Sedated."

Another answer that left him with only more questions. And Stark didn't seem to be inclined to help him sort them out. Bruce regarded him with a thoroughly perplexed expression, not quite sure how to go about getting to the bottom of this. He was resolved to try, but then Stark asked a question of his own.

"You mind if I put her in your lab? Mine's not really equipped to deal with this."

_Deal with what?_

"I guess so. Probably best to use the padded exam table." He took a step back and out of the way. After a pause, he added, "By the way- is there a reason she's wearing your jacket?"

"She didn't have anything of her own," Stark replied shortly as he laid her gently on the narrow, waist-high table. "It was the best I could offer."

Bruce shot him a skeptical look.

"Just where in the hell did you _find_ this girl? I thought Pepper said you were meeting with Mallory today."

"I did."

"And so again I ask- where does _she_-" he gestured to the unconscious woman between them- "fit in to all of that?"

For several long minutes, Stark seemed reluctant to respond. Just stared down at the woman's face with what appeared to be regret. Not a good sign for whatever he would say when he got around to answering the question. He still didn't look up at Bruce when he started talking.

"I told you about that project I was working on. The one I started here in my lab, but then it got derailed when Reindeer Games thought he'd try his hand at ruling Earth. You remember it?"

He did. Vaguely. Stark had lamented not having the time to continue with the project, and brought it up from time to time. Bruce pulled at his memory for the details, dragging a hand through his hair as he said, "Something to do with bionics, wasn't it?"

"Bionics was the tip of the iceberg. But-"

"Wait," Bruce interrupted him. "Just hold on. Are you telling me that this girl is really some sort of-"

"Advanced humanoid," Stark finished for him as he made direct eye contact for the first time. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"I don't believe it."

"A common reaction today," he replied with a bitter smile before looking down again. "It's why we had to sedate her. She didn't believe it, either, and finding out that it was true sent her over a mental ledge."

The words 'mental ledge' made him uneasy. It sounded far too…human a reaction. No matter _how_ 'advanced' this humanoid might be. He decided to probe Stark with a few more questions, suspecting that maybe her extremely lifelike appearance was playing with the man's perception of the events. While that would come with a whole different set of complications, it was still preferable to the alternative.

"A machine that doesn't believe it's a machine- I mean, _is_ it even possible?"

"Oh it's possible. If you don't believe me, you can call Connie for yourself and ask her. She saw it all."

"So how does that happen? Or do I not want to know?"

"Right now, _I_ don't even know. Not for certain, anyway. The most I have so far is that there's something in her programming that didn't go as planned…or went a little _too much_ as planned. Now I have to figure out how to fix it."

The ways those words were said, Bruce felt that there was another half to that statement that Stark had left out. He chased after it and hoped he wouldn't regret asking. "Or?"

"Or nothing. I'm going to fix her. This is my fault, so I'll figure out how to make it right."

_Oh that can't be good. I've heard him get _that_ tone in his voice before._

The two of them stood in mutual silence while the guilt-ridden vehemence of those words reverberated in Bruce's ears. Stark would throw himself at this and wouldn't give up until he found a solution. He saw no use in warning him that there may not be one. That was a problem to address in the future; right now, he focused on one he knew could be resolved.

"May I ask what you used to sedate her?"

"Diazepam."

"You sure that was a good idea?"

"No."

Bruce sighed heavily and bit back his disapproval and forged ahead with his next question.

"How long ago?"

"Forty-five minutes. An hour at most."

"Meaning she'll likely start coming around fairly soon." As if to prove his point, the woman uttered a faint moan just as he finished speaking. She rolled her head to the side as she attempted to turn over. Bruce managed to catch her before she took a tumble to the floor. She mumbled something he couldn't quite catch and frowned. He glanced back up at Stark. "And by soon, I guess I meant 'now'."

Her eyelids drifted open very slowly. She wasn't quite fully lucid yet, but a flash of alarm darted in her eyes when she saw him. Bruce could see that she was trying to say something, but couldn't quite concentrate on the words. It only added to her agitation. Wouldn't be long before enough of the sedative wore off and she might work herself back into a state of panic.

"I think it might be better if we traded places, Stark," he whispered quietly. "This might go easier if she sees someone she recognizes."

At the mention of Stark's name, some of the alarm faded from the woman's eyes. Bruce stepped back as Stark circled around the exam table to where she could see him. He took her hand in his.

"Hey, Doll. You feelin' all right?"

After several attempts, she managed to ask in a slightly hoarse voice, "Wh-what happened to me?"

"You got a bit of a shock and tried to hurt yourself, kiddo. Had me worried. Real worried."

"I feel…weird."

"You'd worked yourself into a real panic, so we gave you something to calm you down again. It'll wear off pretty quick, okay?" She didn't answer. "Do you think you can sit up, Doll?"

"I- maybe." Very slowly, she braced herself up on one arm. Bruce noted that it trembled slightly. The other arm she kept crossed over herself in an attempt to keep the jacket closed. The whole time, he caught her snatching glances his direction. Finally, curiosity got the better of uncertainty. "Who's that?"

"Him?" Stark said with a jab of his thumb. "That's a very good friend of mine who works in the Tower. His name's Bruce. This is his lab."

"Oh."

"And while we're on the subject of names, I'm thinking I ought to ask you for yours. Didn't quite get the chance when we were downstairs."

Her brows drew together in confusion.

"I thought it was 'Doll'. You keep saying it so I just assumed that was my name." Her eyes dropped to the clenched fist resting in her lap. "I thought I just couldn't remember, but maybe…" her breath hitched in her throat. "If I'm…I'm…"

Stark laid a hand atop hers and gave it a squeeze. "Steady. Try not to work yourself up again."

"I don't even have a _name_," she wailed plaintively as she covered her face with both hands.

He was beginning to understand what Stark meant by 'mental ledge', and didn't want to know what had gone on in the QC lab downstairs that caused them to sedate her in the first place. However they'd managed to do it, they'd trapped the mind of a human being in the body of a machine.

_Just how is he hoping to fix this?_

"Think of it as an opportunity," Stark suggested with a grin; it wasn't quite as cocky as usual, but it coaxed her to peek out through her fingers. "You get the rare chance to choose for yourself. The rest of us get stuck with what our parents gave us. Like mine- imagine going through life with a name like 'Anthony'."

The corners of her mouth turned up ever so slightly; her eyes were still sad.

"So what do you say? If you got to pick your own name, what would it be?"

* * *

He was trying so hard- trying so hard to find a way to make this better for me. I wanted to believe it could be, if only so that Stark wouldn't feel bad. And he would. As I'd been waking up I'd picked up fragments of their conversation. Stark had said that what happened to me was his fault. He'd sounded very upset over it, and yet so determined that he could make it all right. I wasn't quite as optimistic.

_Do I even _want_ him to?_

No matter what anyone did, I'd still be a machine. Stark couldn't change that. Couldn't stick whatever 'me' was in a human body. Couldn't make me forget that I was a machine- sooner or later, we'd end up right back in the same place; I was bound to rediscover the truth somehow.

_So the only real option is to make me forget I ever thought I was human. _How was that any different from letting those other two men shut me down? In some ways, I felt it might be worse. If given a choice, perhaps I'd rather just stay dead instead of existing like some kind of mechanical zombie. _Should I just tell him that's what I want and be done with it?_

The choice sounded easy. I could tell myself that it wasn't that big a deal. Just let them switch me off. Wasn't really the same as what it meant for a human to die- I wasn't really alive. But the idea of ceasing to exist terrified me no less than if I _were_ human. I feared the emptiness and…_nothingness_ that came with that choice.

"You still with us, Doll," I heard Stark ask.

Calling myself a coward for not making the hard choice, I shied away from telling him to free me from my mechanical prison. Put my mind to answering the question he'd originally asked instead. He'd asked me to choose a name for myself. I ran through the list of every one I knew to search for something that sounded like 'me'. It took me a moment to decide, and even then I wasn't sure if I'd settled on the right one.

"Lilith," I told him at last. "I'd like to be called Lilith."

He smiled at me.

"Lilith it is, then."

A name. Having one should have made a difference; it didn't. But I tried to smile back so that he wouldn't worry, anyway. All the while, I wondered what was to become of me now. What was something like me meant to do? The question must have been obvious to Stark, who looked over his shoulder to Bruce.

"I think I owe the lady a trip upstairs to see the penthouse. I promised to show her the view of New York from the terrace." He arched an eyebrow. "You want to come with?"

The other man held back his reply, adjusting the glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. Maybe he wanted to come, but I didn't detect any eagerness to accept the invitation. I had a much more difficult time reading what he was thinking, and suspected that was by design. Bruce struck me as very different from Stark- closed off from others and introverted compared to his friend. I wondered why.

"I think I'll stay here," Bruce declined with a headshake. "I was in the middle of something when you arrived and I really need to get back to it."

"If there's one thing I've learned- work can always wait. You sure you can't come up for an hour or so?"

"Yeah, go on without me. I'll be up later this evening."

Stark gave up on the attempt to change his mind and turned back to me. "Ready, Lilith?"

_Ready for what?_

Not quite sure what I was getting myself into, I nodded. Stark offered a hand to assist me down from the table. I had to scoot closer to the edge, somewhat self-conscious that the jacket had ridden up from sitting. After hopping down, I tugged it back in place and tried not to flush in embarrassment. If Stark or Bruce noticed, they were considerate enough not to mention it.

We bade the latter goodbye and stepped out into a hallway. At the one end, an elevator stood waiting. Our destination, apparently, as Stark began walking towards it. I lagged behind him, hampered by a lethargy that made my limbs slow to obey my commands. By the time he'd reached the doors, I was only two thirds of the way there. He had to hold them so that it would wait for me to catch up, and offered an apologetic wince.

"Sorry about that. Didn't dawn on me that you're still a bit off-kilter from the meds. If it doesn't wear off in another half hour or so, let me know."

I said nothing, but nodded in agreement as the doors closed. Stark must have sensed that I wasn't in the mood for conversation. Neither of us spoke through the rest of the ascent. Mercifully short, since the movement of the elevator caused me to feel a little dizzy. I was glad when a chime announced that we had arrived, dropping us off at what I assumed was the topmost floor of the building.

With a sideways glance, Stark said, "I should probably warn you that the Tower is home to a group of my friends- like Bruce. We all work together, sort of, and so they're around a lot. We'll probably run into a few of them while we're up here."

Great. More people to remind me I wasn't human. The thought of meeting them did not thrill me overmuch. In fact, I just wanted to be left alone for a while. I didn't say so, allowing him to continue on with his next train of thought.

"Before we do, I just thought I'd ask you what you want me to say. About the humanoid thing. I know, and Bruce knows, but if you don't want anyone else to know, I'll think of something else to tell them. Whatever you want."

It was kind of him to offer me a choice, but I knew pretending to be human would never work. I shook my head, resigned, and told him, "It's best they know the truth up front."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

A decision made just in time, too. No sooner had I answered, a man in his thirties with blond hair emerged from a door at the other end of the hall. He noticed us straight away and headed in our direction. I felt a knot of apprehension settle in the pit of my stomach, but held myself steady. Mostly.

"Stark- you're back later than I expected." His blue eyes darted to me and slid back. "Um…who've you got with you?"

"This is Lilith. She's part of a humanoid development project the guys downstairs were working on."

The man's square-cut jaw hung slack, and he took a much longer second look at me before he said, "You can't be serious."

"I most certainly am." Stark cast a glance my way. "Lilith, this is Captain Steve Rogers- or just 'Cap' for short."

I offered a tight smile and prayed that he wouldn't expect me to say anything. Wasn't sure I could say anything as anxiety built up inside me. I punched it back down, telling myself that these were Stark's friends and that I would be safe here. But that didn't stop the knot from growing larger as I heard a female voice ask, "Is that Tony?"

"In the hall, Pepper."

"I thought Mallory was going to keep you cooped up in her office all after-" The woman- yet another blonde- stopped mid-sentence as she rounded the corner. In her matching navy blazer and pencil skirt, her demeanor said 'executive' loud and clear. She didn't regard me with the kindest expression as she crossed her arms. "All right, Tony. What trouble have you brought home _this _time?"

The way she said 'trouble' made it sound as though it was _my_ fault somehow. I got the impression she didn't want me here, and tried not to shrink into the jacket Stark had leant to me in an attempt to become invisible. But with her sharp gaze beaming directly down on me, I doubted that I could escape her notice unless I dropped straight through the floor. The idea sounded very appealing right now. And then Stark came to my rescue.

"I don't bring home _trouble_; I bring home _puzzles_. Case in point- this is Lilith. I met her in the QC lab downstairs and brought her back to sort out a hiccup with her programming."

Pepper's perfectly sculpted eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"You don't mean she's…?"

"The realization of my humanoid project. Yes, yes I do."

Her expression remained somewhat skeptical, but now she studied me with open curiosity. I would have preferred the hostility, feeling like a freak show on display. Even worse than I'd felt with Grant and Tom talking about me like a lab specimen. That knot of anxiety had become a gnarled tangle that latched onto every nerve of my body. Out of reflex, my fingers curled around the cuffs of my borrowed jacket and clenched tight. My bare feet scuffed at the floor and I resisted the urge to shout at them to leave me alone.

_I need to get away from here. I can't stay in this place with all of these…_people_._

"Lilith? You all right?"

_I never should have agreed to leave that lab. Should have just told them to shut me off._

"I don't think she heard you."

_They're all going to stare at me like this. All the time. Gawking at the machine pretending to be human. I can _never_ hope to fit into this world around them._

"Is she okay- Stark, she doesn't look like she's okay."

"It's been a long afternoon."

"In what sense? Tony, what's she doing wearing your jacket, anyway?"

"The production team didn't think to provide her with any clothes, so we improvised. And I'll explain it all in a minute, but I've got to get her calmed down before she has another meltdown."

"_Meltdown?_"

"Lilith- look at me, okay?" Stark circled around to stand directly in front of me. He had that same worried frown again. "What's wrong? Can you tell me what's got you worked up?"

"I can't-" The words stuck in my throat and wouldn't come out. I swallowed and tried again. "I can't stay here. I can't…I can't _do_ this." My vision blurred and when I blinked, tears slid down my cheeks. "You have to shut me off. Please."

I wasn't sure how to describe Stark's expression at hearing my request. Shock. But something else, too. Not quite the same as sadness, but close. He grasped my shoulders and leaned in close.

"Don't give up on me, kiddo. I promised I would fix this, but you have to give me the chance to try."

"I-"

"Give me two weeks. Two weeks to figure this out and then if I haven't…well, then we'll talk about what you said. Does that sound fair?"

I didn't want to give in, but the pleading note in his voice was too much for my willpower to withstand. And the debate had given me time to second guess myself. If he'd just agreed, then I could have followed through with ending this. Now the doubts and fears from before had come back full force. I didn't want to die; I didn't want to live.

"Two weeks," I whispered painfully. "Not a day longer."

* * *

They stood on the Bifrost, Heimdall glaring at them, as usual. Well, at _him_, anyway. The Watchman still didn't approve of these visits to Midgard, even though Loki had done nothing to warrant such a searing glare since Thor began bringing him along for the past six months. Hardly worth anyone's notice. Just a series of short visits every so often with the aim of giving him 'positive interactions' with the mortals.

Granted, getting approval for them hadn't been easy- on either side of the Bifrost. Thor had argued against Odin's opposition as well as that of the mortals for the better part of a year before he could overcome their reluctance. Or, in the case of most mortals, their outright hostility. On Loki's part, he viewed it all with bemused tolerance.

_Just another step closer to being let off my leash again._

That was a much bigger battle that was still ongoing, and one that had been met with even more obstacles. Getting free of his prison after the Chitauri fiasco had been the first major victory, and had taken him several years. Even then, he hadn't been able to achieve it on his own. Frigga had served as his main advocate with Odin, convincing the Allfather to entertain Loki's petition. And so he'd jump through whatever hoops he must for now. At least until everyone grew comfortable enough to trust him again.

_And then what?_

_And then I start again._

He had to be careful, though. Thanos was still out there, and Loki knew things were far from finished between them. The loss of the Chitauri army against the Avengers was not something that would be forgotten. Another reason why he allowed himself to be 'guarded' by Thor most of the time- especially when he left Asgard. He couldn't afford to be caught alone until he had some sort of plan for how he would deal with Thanos.

_But rest assured, I _will_ have Asgard. One way or another._

The Watchman's annoyed huff drew his thoughts back to the present.

"All right, no sense dragging this out," he grumbled. "Two weeks. I'll expect you both back on this bridge in two weeks. Got it?"

"Yes, Heimdall, we've done this no less than four times already. Loki and I know the drill."

A hard look to Loki from the Watchman.

"It bears repeating."

When he made no reply, the god gave one final harrumph and sent them hurtling through the universe to land on Midgard. Back to the Tower, just like every other visit. Except this time, no one was standing on the terrace to greet them. Loki looked askance to Thor and raised an eyebrow.

"Did they not know we were coming?"

"They should. I told Stark the date we'd be returning before we left."

"I guess no one saw fit to play the welcoming host this time. A sorry state of good manners. I suppose we're expected to let ourselves in."

Thor shot him a frown before leading the way across the terrace. The glass doors had been left wide open, and so the two of them walked straight into the Tower's massive penthouse. It's massive, seemingly _empty_ penthouse.

"Hey- anybody home?" Thor called out. "Stark? Cap? _Anybody?_"

No reply. Loki wondered if they'd truly forgotten to expect guests and were absent from the Tower. He was about make another needling remark, but then he thought he heard voices just around the corner- from the direction of the elevators. Stark's was one; Loki didn't recognize the other. Sharing a curious glance with Thor, the two of them went to investigate.

"…haven't, well, then we'll talk about what you said. Does that sound fair?"

Stark had put that question to a petite brunette who was standing amid a semi-circle made up of Rogers, Potts and Stark. Not one of them noticed that the circle had been increased by two more as they waited for the woman to reply. Loki was curious why the mortal sounded a tad desperate in making this particular offer. Certainly not his typical, insufferable attitude. Made him wonder who the young woman was.

_Not to mention…very curious to know why she's standing around in nothing more than a man's suit jacket._

After a very long silence, the brunette answered, "Two weeks. Not a day longer."

"Two weeks for what," Thor queried, startling everyone.

"Oh hell," Stark swore. "It's today, isn't it?"

"When is it not 'today'," Loki mused, unable to resist the teasing jibe.

"No, I mean- the thing where you two show up and- oh screw it, you knew what I meant."

He did, but wasn't it entertaining to see the mortal so off-balance? Loki thoroughly enjoyed the times when he had Stark at a disadvantage during these 'visits'. This was turning out to be a particularly amusing one, and he didn't intend to squander the opportunity to make the most of it.

"I know that your use of language is rather imprecise at the moment, and that it appears you have lost track of the days. Obviously, our arrival comes as quite the surprise to find you so ill-prepared to receive us."

"Loki…" Thor warned. "Let's not start a fight the minute we arrive."

"I was doing nothing of the sort."

He expected Thor to argue, considering they both knew that was a complete lie. But then Stark drew the focus back on him with an exasperated sigh as he complained, "It would be my luck that you two would show up today, wouldn't it?"

"Should we come back another time," Thor asked.

The mortal actually considered it for a long moment. A _very_ long moment. So long that Loki was almost certain that he was going to agree.

"No, you're here already. And I guess now that you are, I might as well make the introductions and get this over with. Lilith, this is Thor and Loki from Asgard. They're sort of like out of town guests who occasionally visit the Tower from their home world."

A very cursory explanation, and one that left out quite a few key details.

The woman listened to the introduction while staring at them with eyes a peculiar blend of brown and green. The expression in them did not register any recognition regarding their names or who they were. Moreover, Loki saw none of the typical mortal reactions to meeting him face to face. Odd not to feel the impact of instant fear, hatred or disgust. Just…a general impression of weariness.

"It's our pleasure to meet you, Lilith," Thor replied dutifully. Better that he took the role of diplomat; Loki hardly cared one way or another. "Are you a relative of Stark's, or…?"

"I'm-"

"She's a new research assistant to help out in the lab downstairs," Stark interjected. "Lilith will be helping Bruce and me for a while."

_If that's true, then why does she look surprised to hear it?_

Lilith wasn't the only one, as it turned out. Rogers was equally dubious, and was the first to question the arrangement, asking, "You sure Bruce is okay with that plan, Stark? You know how he is about…um…people in his lab."

An interesting hesitation over the word 'people'. Loki couldn't tell if he was trying to spare the mortal woman's feelings if Banner decided he had no need of her help, or if something more was going on here. He'd gotten the sense that Stark had deliberately cut off Lilith's answer to the question so that he could supply his own.

_What didn't you want her to say, I wonder?_

"They've already met, Cap. It'll be fine."

"If you say so, but I remember the last…"

"I said it'll be _fine_."

Rogers clammed up, sufficiently deterred from pressing the issue by Stark's sharp retort. Definitely something going on here. Loki cast a furtive look to Potts in hopes of gauging her reaction. She was doing her best to keep a poker face, but he read a number of minute tells in her expression that told him all was _not_ how Stark was trying to make it appear. Which was perfectly fine by him. At least solving the mystery of what the mortal was trying to hide would make these next two weeks a little more interesting.

"Pepper, could you do me a favor and get Lilith set up in one of the spare rooms? I'll deal with everything out here."

_Meaning you want her to shepherd the woman somewhere out of sight so that no one can ask any more questions._

Potts stepped forward after only the slightest moment of hesitation and took Lilith's arm and led her away from the group. She tried to make the whole request sound normal by telling her, "You can stay in the one across the hall from Steve. Tony just had it redone last month."

The two women made their way to the other end of the hall, Potts dominating the conversation with information about the Tower and such. Loki followed their progress until they'd come to their destination and disappeared out of sight. With nothing more to hold his interest there, his gaze shifted back to the group. Stark was practically glaring at him, hostility almost palpable.

"Leave her alone, Trickster. I'll warn you just this one time- leave Lilith alone."

Unimpressed, Loki chuckled. "Or what?"

"Or I can guarantee that you won't be staying in my Tower ever again."

The mortal meant those words. They weren't an idle threat or a show of unnecessary bravado, which bore careful consideration. It presented a potential problem for him if Stark actually intended to take this seriously. After all, banning him from the Tower effectively banned him from returning to Midgard; staying here was part of the stipulations Odin had made when he agreed to allowing Loki to leave Asgard at all.

_So I guess I'll have to play along._

But that didn't mean he had to let the mortal think he'd won. And so Loki feigned indifference as he remarked idly, "Quite the ultimatum. And quite unnecessary. I am not in the habit of consorting with the hired help. So have no fear, Stark. Your little research assistant is safe from me."

Stark's glare didn't waver. If anything, it grew more severe. But if the man thought Loki was lying, he didn't accuse him of it. He just turned and walked away.

_And the game begins._


	3. Concerns and Expectations

Pepper pushed open the spare bedroom door and stepped inside, glancing over her shoulder to be sure that Lilith was still following behind. Very prudent of Tony to cut any exchange between the HPA and their Asgardian guests short. She doubted that Lilith was really up to dealing with them- even Thor with his polite friendliness. Definitely wouldn't have been ready to deal with Loki's brand of mischief, and he seemed to be getting an early start of it this visit.

_No telling _what_ might have happened if the god had decided to target Lilith instead of Tony._

She didn't want to find out, either. Tony said the HPA had a meltdown in the lab downstairs. If what she'd seen just a moment ago had been a preview of how _that_ had played out, Pepper was convinced the coding 'hiccup' he mentioned was serious. Most likely, 'hiccup' was Tony's way of downplaying just how serious the problem was. A tactic he used often- especially when it came to his tech innovations. Didn't want to admit that he might have failed at something.

_Oh, Tony, what have you gotten us all into?_ Pepper tried not to think too much on the answer to that question, but instinct was telling her that two weeks wasn't going to be enough time to sort all this out. If it _could_ be sorted out at all. _No sense dwelling on it now. What's done is done and his mind is already set._

Suppressing a sigh, she turned around and said, "Here we are. As I mentioned, we just redid the furnishings in this room, so it should be all set for whatever you need."

No response. Lilith merely stood in place, taking in her surroundings with expressionless eyes that seemed not to care one way or another about what they were seeing. Eventually, that listless gaze focused on Pepper. Strained silence hung between them so long that a prickle of unease crept up the back of her neck. And then the HPA blinked once before breaking that silence.

"I don't really know what I need."

Point of fact, neither did Pepper. None of them were all that prepared for this arrangement- perhaps not even Tony himself, despite having brought Lilith up here in the first place. It might have been better to have kept the HPA in the lab instead of the penthouse.

_Keep her in the lab- like a broken desk lamp or chair,_ her thoughts chimed in with heavy sarcasm that nipped at her conscience. _You can keep calling her an 'HPA' all you want, but you know better than to argue that Lilith is just a machine._

Pepper let herself accept that truth. She had been trying to create as much distance between them as she could with that label, not wanting to deal with the grey area between 'human' and 'machine' that Lilith's existence created. Or the uncomfortable questions she knew were ahead for all of them as a result. But when she looked at Lilith- _really_ looked- her brain wanted to recognize what she saw as a 'her' and not as an 'it'. So she felt the tiniest sliver of guilt for thinking it would have been okay to exile the woman to Tony's lab to avoid that discomfort.

_Doesn't change the fact that I have no idea what something like her needs._ Something to bring to Tony's attention once she'd gotten Lilith settled in. He wasn't going to shrug off the details like he usually did. _In the meantime, let's just try to be positive and supportive._

"I'm sure we'll figure it all out," she told Lilith with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "If nothing else, think of this as your own personal space in the Tower. A place to go whenever you need privacy."

Another sweeping look around. Assessing. And then a tight nod.

"Thank you."

They lapsed into silence again before Pepper risked asking, "Are you…all right? I know things got a little intense out there…"

Lilith lifted her shoulders in a shrug and looked aside to the story-high windows on her left. Without really answering the question, she crossed the room to stand in front of them. Staring at the city beyond, brows furrowed. Pepper doubted she was being intentionally rude. Rather, that the woman honestly didn't know how to answer the question. And then Lilith asked a question of her own, prefacing it with a humorless laugh.

"How am I supposed to be okay? I'm a machine that can't tell I'm a machine." She shot Pepper a backward glance and raised her right arm, causing the sleeve of Tony's jacket to slip down to Lilith's elbow. "But then, what was I _supposed_ to think when I'm built to look like _this_?"

Good question. Pepper would love to hear Tony's answer to it. She'd tried to put these concerns to him years ago when he first set his mind on this project, but they'd fallen on deaf ears. Practicalities about 'what then?' just couldn't compete with the excitement of discovery. And now they'd come full circle and the 'what then' had become 'what now'. The questions couldn't be ignored this time. She wasn't going to let Tony shrug that off, either.

Unable to give the woman any real answer, she said the only thing she could say.

"I really don't know." Lilith turned back to the window without reply. Pepper decided now might be a good time to make her exit. She lingered in the doorway just long enough to say, "I'll see about getting you some clothes. In the meantime, have a look around and let me know if there's anything you want."

A nod but nothing more.

Pepper fled the suite. The hall outside was empty- no sign of anyone at all, which meant they'd taken their discussion elsewhere. As much as she wanted to find out where they'd gone- Tony in particular- finding a temporary wardrobe for Lilith took precedence. And as luck would have it, Wanda and Nat emerged from the elevator at the far end of the corridor. Just the two people she planned to ask for help with that.

"Hey there," Wanda greeted her cheerfully. She stopped and gave Pepper the once over. "You look like you've had a long day."

"I don't know about _long_…but Tony threw me a curveball this afternoon. Threw us all a curveball, really."

"Oh?"

"Long story short- his HPA project hit a significant snag and he's brought one of them up to the penthouse while he figures out how to fix the problem."

The pair exchanged a glance before the Nat said, "HPA- isn't that the android program?"

"That's the one."

"I thought they were still months away from a finished product."

"They are." Pepper raised her shoulders and shook her head. "Or _were_\- I don't know what the status is now."

"Define 'snag'," Wanda said, her tone cautious.

"I don't really know all the details yet- haven't had a chance to pry them out of Tony. But he mentioned something about a problem with her code."

"'Her'."

"Yes. Her name's Lilith. Tony brought her up here about fifteen minutes ago and had me put her in the spare room across from Steve."

The two Avengers digested that information for a few moments. Neither of them were in any hurry to comment about what she'd told them, sifting through the details before drawing any conclusions. Not much different than Lilith, and no less unsettling, even though she'd become friends of a sort with the two women. Still, moments like this reminded her of their differences.

_Maybe they'll have better luck dealing with Lilith, then._

Finally, Nat put a question to her; thankfully, an easy one. "How can we help?"

"For now? Clothes. She arrived here wearing Tony's jacket and- I _assume_\- nothing else. I'm too tall, so I don't think anything of mine would fit her. You two are closer to her in height, so I was going to ask if you could loan her a few things until we can get her a proper wardrobe of her own."

Nat nodded and turned to Wanda.

"I can scrounge up a few things that might do. You?"

"I could probably donate half my closet and never miss a thing. It's practically overflowing at the moment." Her gaze shifted to Pepper's and she asked, "She's staying in the room across from Cap, you said?"

"Yeah."

"We'll grab some stuff and take it over, then."

"You sure? I really want to have a word with Tony, but if you need me to, I can stick around to introduce you."

"Go on. Nat and I have got this."

* * *

"You didn't have to let us stay, you know," Thor told him after taking a generous swallow from the drink in his right hand. "We could have postponed this visit until next month. Or the month after, if necessary."

A point that the god had already made more than once- especially once Loki was out of earshot. Tony knew he likely _should_ have admitted that now was not the best of times to deal with the Trickster. Probably _should_ have told the gods to return to Asgard. At least until he'd gotten the situation with Lilith settled.

_Might have if Reindeer Games hadn't been so damned smug. _He suppressed an irritated sigh, disappointed that he'd let himself be baited so easily. After all, he'd been sparring with the god long enough to know better. To know when and where to pick his battles. So losing this one was doubly annoying. _Definitely shouldn't have given him any reason to take interest in Lilith._

Tony toyed with his own glass and gave a half-shrug. "You were already here."

"Stark."

"Just drop it, Thor. What's done is done."

The two of them stood in companionable silence out on the terrace, each keeping to his own thoughts. The tableau was interrupted only when Pepper emerged from the penthouse. Alone. Tony didn't see Lilith with her, and felt some measure of relief. He couldn't be sure where the others- notably Loki- were at the moment, and so it'd be best if she stayed in her room. At least for a short while.

Guilt ate at him, knowing the _other_ reason he'd rather not see Lilith so soon. Tony raised the glass to his lips and tried to banish the image of her, in tears, begging to be deactivated. Didn't work as well as he hoped. Then again, he supposed he shouldn't have expected it to. He emptied the contents of the tumbler and grimaced to himself.

_Has to be a way to fix this._

He didn't have much time to find one. Two weeks. She'd only given him two weeks. Even if he could devote every waking minute to the task, it'd be an aggressive deadline. But that wasn't really an option. Not with a business empire to run and various bad guys to keep track of- not including the one currently residing in the Tower. All those things combined wouldn't leave him much of any time at all to devote to Lilith.

_Still gotta try._

While he'd been distracted by those thoughts, Pepper had crossed the flagstones to join them. Tony shelved all that away to deal with later as he shifted gears. He gave Pepper a smile; she didn't smile back. Not a good sign, but not the clearest one, either. Hard to know if it meant things hadn't gone well with Lilith, or if she was still annoyed with him over having brought Lilith to the penthouse in the first place.

"Hey, Doll," he said, hoping to diffuse whatever was behind her mood. "Everything go okay?"

"Nat and Wanda are finding a few things Lilith can borrow from their wardrobes." She leveled a no-nonsense look at him. "While you and I have a little talk."

_Well, that sounds ominous._

Tony tried to play it off as if he wasn't concerned. He gave her his best 'I'm-so-innocent-of-whatever-you-think-I-did' grin and asked, "Talk about what?"

Pepper was not amused.

"Don't you dare try that. I'm _serious_, Tony."

The grin faded. "I know."

"Well-intentioned as you were in bringing Lilith here, we're not really equipped to deal with-" her eyes slid to Thor and back, as if hesitating over the decision of whether or not she ought to continue. If it were up to Tony, he might have preferred she didn't; Pepper made a different choice, finishing her sentence by saying- "a machine with an identity crisis."

Her words lingered in the afternoon breeze, catching the Thunder god by surprise. Naturally, Thor was quick to comment on his shock at hearing the news, exclaiming incredulously, "I beg your pardon- did you just say that Lilith is a _machine_?"

So much for hoping he could ease into the subject. _Could be worse, though. Loki could have been around when she said it._ He turned to his friend and offered a rueful look as he raked a hand through his hair. A gesture that was becoming an all too familiar habit today. Too bad that it didn't help him all that much in providing Thor with an explanation. _Best get on with it._

"Machine might be a bit of a misnomer. Lilith's an advanced android that my team has been working on. Sort of a pet project of mine."

The god blinked once.

"You're jesting with me."

"Not at all."

"I would have sworn that she was mortal. She sure looked like one- _acted_ like one. Hel, you may have even fooled my brother."

"Precisely why we need to talk," Pepper interjected. "Because I rather got the impression that Lilith herself is having a hard time believing she's not human. And when you said she had a 'meltdown' in the lab downstairs- Tony, what exactly did you mean by that?"

Both she and Thor were looking to him expectantly for an answer. Tony didn't really want to give one. Wasn't entirely sure he could bring himself to describe what had happened down there. Trouble was, he had to tell them _something_. So what could he say? He started out by addressing Pepper's first point.

"Initially, Lilith _did_ think she was human. It wasn't easy to convince her that she was an android instead; she vehemently denied that it could be true…until she saw one of the other HPA units." He took a breath and got to her next question. "That's when things went sideways. For lack of a better word, she couldn't handle the truth and became hysterical." Pushing past the memory of seeing her collapse and curl up in the fetal position, Tony forced himself to finish. "So bad she needed to be sedated and brought to Bruce's lab. Lilith _seemed_ calm enough before we headed up here, but then she sort of unraveled a bit when we were talking in the hallway."

_More than a bit._

His telling of the events from downstairs had been sparse, but still painted an accurate picture. Maybe a little _too_ accurate. Pepper threw him a worried look as she asked, "Is she dangerous? I mean, suppose she loses control again. Do we need to be concerned for the safety of the team?"

Another question he'd rather not answer. He'd intentionally left out mentioning anything about the wrecked QC lab- or that Lilith had no qualms about physically attacking others. That information would not sit well with Pepper once he admitted that Lilith's bionic structure gave her a definitive advantage over the average human. Even the not-so-average human. Hulk could take her down no question, but Tony suspected the rest of them would be hopelessly out-classed in a fight.

_Would she _intentionally_ hurt someone, though? If I go by _that_ definition…_

"Concerned? No."

"_Tony_."

"What can I say? If pushed to defend herself, she's gonna fight back, and whoever's on the receiving end is gonna get wrecked."

"All right," she muttered with unhappy acceptance. "I suppose that's fair. But what are we supposed to _do_ with her?"

He frowned at her and replied, "I already said. Lilith's going to be a lab assistant downstairs for me and Bruce."

"And did he _really_ give his okay on this plan?"

_Hadn't actually gotten to ask him yet. _The idea had come to him on the spot. Something that would shut down too many questions. But it made sense. She'd already be spending most of her time down there, so he could have a look at her code. _And Bruce could really use the help, whether he wants it or not._

"Well, not yet," he admitted sheepishly. "But I'll work it out with him, Doll. Promise."

"Sometimes Tony, I swear…"

"I've _got_ this."

After a moment of silence, Thor spoke up, "So if she's an android as you claim, how does the day to day stuff work? I mean- is she powered by some sort of battery? Does she plug into a wall socket?"

All very good questions. Tony just wished he knew the answers to any of them. But he honestly had no idea. All that was supposed to be detailed in the user manual, which wouldn't be finalized until all of the QC was done. And since they hadn't gotten very far on that…he whipped out his phone.

"JARVIS- can you get me Connie's number?"

"Already dialing, sir."

After several rings, she picked up with a surly, "Milano- who's this?"

"Connie, it's Tony. You busy?"

"Are you kidding? I'm always busy- especially after what happened in the lab today."

He winced a little. "About that-"

"If you were wanting an update on the other units I'm sorry to say we had to scrap them all. Too much damage."

A part of him was disappointed, but it was probably for the best. Installing the clean code might have ensured what happened with Lilith didn't repeat itself, but Tony wasn't completely confident about that. Until he could isolate the root cause, he couldn't take the risk that it might be something other than the inactive code from the original program.

"Wasn't even thinking about them, honestly. But thanks for the update." He paced a few steps around the terrace as he talked. "Actually, I was calling to see if you had a draft of the user guide. Didn't think about it when I was down there, but it's probably a good idea to have a look at it."

"I could ask the tech guys if they have something. I know Jaemie had someone on his team working on it. Worse comes to worst, I can get you a copy of their requirement specs." She let out a chuckle. "At least _you'd_ be able to make sense of it."

"I appreciate it, Doll. Thanks." Tony hung up and regarded the other two with a half-hearted shrug. "Well, that ought to help answer a few of those questions."

* * *

The door closed, leaving me alone in the strange room. The first time I'd been alone since I woke up. _Or, more accurately, since I was switched on_. I grimaced at the thought before shoving it aside to consider my surroundings. Pepper had said that this space would belong to me for the next two weeks; I didn't hold out much hope that Stark would find a solution by then, and saw this as a delay of the inevitable. But at least in the meantime I could enjoy the view of the city.

_ It is every bit as impressive as he made it out to be._

I looked on as cars the size of water droplets slowly made their way from block to block. The undulating mass of multi-colored dots on either sidewalk were likely people, but we were too high up for me to know for certain. Wasn't quite sure how I understood anything of what I was seeing in the first place. If Stark and the others had been telling me the truth and I was some kind of android- where did my knowledge of the city and the world around me come from? The question conjured an image of science fiction. Information downloaded into a positronic brain of almost infinite capacity.

_Science fiction, _I thought with an indignant snort. _More like science fact._

For a long while, I remained at the window, content to observe the world from the relative safety of my private room. And then my solitude was interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Likely Pepper, returning with the promised clothes. I abandoned my post to admit her, but when the door opened, I came face to face with two women I didn't recognize. Two redheads- one about my height and the other a few inches taller.

My brows drew together as I queried sharply, "Who are you?"

The woman on the left gestured to the haphazard bundle in her arms and said, "Natasha Romanoff- but the team calls me Nat for short. Pepper told us about your predicament and so Wanda and I brought a few things that might fit you."

Nat and Wanda. More inhabitants of the Tower, I presumed. With the ones I'd already met, we'd long passed the definition of 'a few'. I began to wonder just how many more people lived here. A question I kept to myself as I reluctantly stood aside so that the women could come in. Tried to ignore the openly curious looks they gave me.

"Thanks. This has all been…a bit awkward. Not having any of my own clothes."

Wanda rested a hip against the foot of the bed after she'd deposited her pile on the duvet cover. Her glance slid sideways to Nat, who'd done the same with her armful, before coming back to rest on me.

"Pepper mentioned you came from one of the labs downstairs."

_I might have guessed you had an ulterior motive for this visit- fishing for details I'd wager._ My expression turned stony but I held back from uttering those words aloud. Wasn't interested in giving them an invitation to try again to draw me into discussing the subject; I'd already exhausted my stamina when it came to dealing with what I was. Or_ wasn't_. _So if that's what you're really here for, you can take your charity and shove it._

The silence lengthened between us. Uncomfortable and tense. But unlike Pepper, neither of these women felt the need to fill it with idle conversation. No doubt they'd read my unspoken message clearly enough, and were considering what to do. I got the feeling that they did this often. All the more reason to be wary of their intentions, in my opinion.

Finally, Nat broke the silence, observing drily, "You're going to shake things up in the Tower for a while. I just hope Stark can get it all settled before we throw Thor and Loki on top of this."

Names I recognized. The two men Stark had introduced before he asked Pepper to show me to this room. Something about that whole conversation had seemed a bit…off. I couldn't quite put my finger on what, but his explanation about them felt glossed over. Like he'd intentionally left a few details out. He certainly had left out a few key details when he'd been explaining who _I_ was.

_Although far more unexpected were the ones he _added_._

Like working as his and Bruce's assistant. We hadn't discussed any of _that_ when we were in the lab- no matter what he'd implied to his friends. So when Stark made that assertion, I'd been unable to contain my surprise. A reaction that didn't go unnoticed, given the expression on the dark-haired visitor from Asgard. He, at least, suspected something was amiss, even if he didn't voice it outright. From what little he _did_ say, though, I quickly gathered that he and Stark did not get along.

Nat's off-hand remark offered me an opportunity to test the theory, since she obviously wasn't aware that the Asgardians were here already, and so I told her casually, "It's funny you should mention those two by name- they arrived shortly after I did."

"So I take it you met them?"

"More or less. Stark introduced them as 'out of town guests'."

Nat made a derisive sound through her nose at that and remarked, "That must be the loosest interpretation of 'out of town' I've ever heard."

"Or 'guest'," Wanda added. "Well, at least where _Loki's_ concerned, anyway."

Interesting commentary. Interesting, but also slightly ambiguous. Rather like they were daring me to ask them what they meant by it. I knew better, and leashed my own curiosity for the time being. Safer to put my questions to Pepper, who would be less likely to want something from me in return. So I pretended to shrug the subject off as unimportant and plucked at the sleeves of Stark's jacket.

"Well, I ought to be returning this- thanks again for the loan of your clothes."

They read my message loud and clear, already heading for the door. Nat kept one hand on the frame as she let her gaze fall on me one last time. Her tone was deceptively light when she replied, "Think nothing of it. We'll get going, but if what we brought isn't working out, just give us a knock. My room is down the hall- two down on the left. Wanda's is just across from it."

I nodded and they showed themselves out; I sincerely hoped it would be a while before I crossed paths with either of them again.

After closing the door behind them, I shed the jacket and began picking through the assorted garments. _Lavender or periwinkle,_ I thought to myself as I unearthed two matching sets of lingerie. Neither were much to my taste, but if I _had_ to choose…_lavender it is, then._ Trying not to feel strange about wearing someone else's underwear, I pulled them on and set about adjusting the straps of the brassiere. The cup size was a little too big, but not enough to be noticeable once I'd put clothes on over it.

From Nat's pile, I grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans and wriggled my way into them. A tad snug over the hips. I climbed back out of them and tried a different pair of pants from Wanda's bundle; they were an inch or so too long, so I went back to the jeans. After all, it'd only be a day or two. Thankfully, the cranberry silk blouse I found at the bottom of the hoard fit me with no issue.

_Finally, I almost feel normal._

Rummaging around, I found a pair of black socks and ballet style shoes. My toes didn't quite reach the tips of the latter, but weren't so loose that they were falling off my feet. They'd have to do for the time being. I scuffed my feet over to the full-length mirror on the wall next to the room's spacious walk in closet. Stared at my reflection in the glass for a long time.

_Now what?_

My gaze cast about the room in search of something to do. Wasn't really much more to explore in here. I supposed I could put the rest of the clothes away in the closet, but that wouldn't take me very long and I'd be right back to the same problem again. Could spend more time looking out the window, but I was feeling too restless to remain still. Which only left me with one option. I glanced over my shoulder to the door to the hall.

"I guess I'm going out there again."

Gathering Stark's jacket, I heaved a sigh and told myself that I could start by returning it and take it one step at a time. Could always come back here if that panicky feeling returned. And so, courage bolstered as best as it could be, I grabbed the door knob and pulled. No sign of Nat or Wanda. I craned my neck through the open door and peered further down the hall. No one there.

"So far so good."

I slipped silently out of my private sanctuary and made my way cautiously down the long corridor. As I passed by each set of doors, my eyes darted warily from right to left, expecting to be intercepted by one of the other residents at any moment. Didn't happen. By the time I reached an open archway that branched off to a large, open room, I was convinced that the penthouse was empty.

"Hey, Lilith," a male voice called to me from behind.

_Looks like I spoke too soon._

Reluctantly, I turned around to see the blonde I'd first met upon arriving at the Tower penthouse, Steve. Stark had called him Cap, though. I tried out both names in my head and the latter just didn't sound right to me at all. But 'Steve' didn't, either.

"Um, hi," I answered haltingly, omitting a name altogether. "Would you know where I might find Stark?"

He smiled at me. A kind, easy sort of smile. I could see him as the type who felt naturally compassionate towards others, though I couldn't say why. At the moment, I merely took it as a comfort and tentatively smiled in return. He gestured over his shoulder to the rooms on the other side of the archway.

"Out on the terrace with Thor last I knew. It's through there. C'mon, I'll show you the way."

We passed through a sizable living room; I took note of the large toffee-colored sectional that dominated the right side of the room. Leather, from the look of it. Graceful floor lamps accented either side, their frosted bulbs reminding me of tulips. To my left, a fully stocked bar ran the length of the wall. Complete with high Cherrywood barstools. A sign that Stark and his friends must like to entertain often. I tried not to let that worry me over much.

Across the space, a wall of glass windows opened up to what I presumed must be the terrace. Steve led me to the door, which had been propped open, and we walked out into the warm afternoon sun. Wasn't until I'd basked in it for a minute or two that I remembered my reason for coming out here. I spotted Pepper first, who was talking to Stark and Thor over by the waist-high balustrade. The three of them were in deep conversation, but stopped the moment they saw us.

_Bet I know what- or _who_\- you were talking about._

Stark broke away from the others and ambled up to me. "Hey there, Doll. Looks like the ladies have you all set."

"What?"

"The clothes. Those fit you good- far better than my jacket did."

* * *

The woman glanced down at herself with a muted, "Oh."

Thor was still having a difficult time believing she wasn't mortal, and half-expected Stark to admit the whole thing was a joke. Wouldn't be the first time. But a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind told him that Lilith was exactly what he'd been told: A machine. _A very _sophisticated_ sort of machine, _he amended. _And if I heard correctly, not the most stable one._

Not the best combination to mix with his brother, so he could understand wanting to keep those two at arm's length. Stark hadn't gone about it the best way, admittedly, but at least Thor understood why he'd made a point to warn Loki off. Whether his brother _heeded _that warning was another matter. Unlikely. If anything, Stark's vehemence had only given Loki all the more reason to take an interest in her. To keep those two from tearing into one another, he might have to think of some means of distracting his brother for the next two weeks.

_And won't _that_ be fun?_

"Speaking of," Lilith replied with a slight bob of her head. "I thought you might want it back. With my thanks."

"Think nothing of it, Doll." A moment's hesitation and then Stark corrected himself to say, "Sorry, Lilith. I really should stop doing that."

_Why?_ He'd known the man for years, and 'Doll' was just part of his natural lexicon. Definitely hadn't ever apologized for using it in the past- hadn't when said it to Pepper just a second ago. _So why is it important now, _Thor mused with idle curiosity, though he didn't voice it aloud.

If Lilith thought the stumbling apology odd, she didn't mention it. Didn't say much of anything, merely handing the jacket back to Stark. The latter draped it over the back of a nearby patio chair. Would probably forget about it altogether and they'd find the thing still there tomorrow morning. He then waved a hand for Lilith to follow him to the stone wall that enclosed the terrace.

"C'mere. I know you already got a peek at the city from your room, but it's not quite the same as seeing it from out here."

Somewhat bemused by his enthusiasm, she allowed herself to be guided to the railing. Thor shrugged and closed in behind with Pepper and Cap. The five of them stood side by side, peering over the edge to the busy streets below. Asgard boasted similar views, though not quite from the same height. Even from up here, however, they could still make out the cacophony of humans going about their daily lives in the city; at street level, the noise could be almost deafening at times.

"So. What do you think of it?"

She didn't look up.

"I have no idea how so many people live so close together without getting in each other's way all the time."

"I'll grant you- it's a chaotic sort of experiment. And by no means a perfect one. But you give it a few weeks and I bet you'll get the hang of living here."

Lilith shot Stark a dubious glance but said nothing. Just went back to studying the 'experiment' that was New York City. As Thor did the same, he agreed that it was a bizarre combination of order and chaos. Like most places on Midgard. Preoccupied by those thoughts, he failed to mark the addition of a sixth person at the railing. At least not until after the newest arrival announced himself.

"I'm curious what everyone finds so interesting about this particular spot. I confess that it appears no more remarkable than any other at this height. To my eyes, anyway."

Everyone jolted in surprise- Thor included. The collective group backed away from the edge and reformed as a semi-circle facing the penthouse. Pepper and Cap traded an uncomfortable glance while Loki's smirked in amusement. Just the reaction his brother had been hoping to get. Even worse, Thor caught the sharp look in his eye when Stark moved to put himself between Lilith and Loki.

"It's none of your business."

The words thrummed with tension, which Loki did not miss. _Not smart, Stark. Not if you want him to leave her alone._ Too late to undo that now. Stark's tone had piqued the god's interest. He raised an eyebrow, expression shifting to a familiar blend of false innocence and haughty indignation.

"Pardon me for asking a simple question. Had I known it would result in having my head bit off, I'd have spared myself the trouble. It's not like I _cared_ about the answer one way or another."

_This won't end well. I just know it._

Nothing he could do but watch and hope for the best as Stark shuffled another step forward to put Lilith more solidly behind him. Probably would end up pulling the Avenger off his brother if things came to blows. No different than other times when he'd had to step in before one of the mortals got in over his head. Although, usually he was pulling Hawk's irons out of the fire and not Stark's.

"Tony- leave it go, won't you?"

Pepper. The voice of reason. If Stark would listen to it, anyway. But judging by the man's expression, that was a big 'if'. He admired the woman for trying, nonetheless, and wished her luck. He really didn't want to start off the first day with a full-on brawl between those two. After a long stare, Stark backed off with a dismissive shrug.

"Not worth it, anyway."

A comment that might have encouraged Loki to press the matter, but then Banner emerged onto the terrace and redirected everyone's focus. Loki's in particular. The presence of _that_ particular Avenger tended to keep his brother in check. But Thor understood well enough that it was a momentary distraction; whatever this was wasn't over. He was highly inclined to just end the visit now and avoid the headaches he knew were sure to come.

"Look who dragged himself out of his lab," Cap remarked with a grin. "Calling it an early day for once?"

The other man offered a weary smile in return as he joined the group and adjusted his glasses before answering, "I should still be down there, but I can only stare at those sample reports for so long before my eyes start burning. One of these days I'm going to need bifocals."

"Well, then it's a good thing you'll be getting an assistant."

Stark's head jerked around, the picture of alarm. And no wonder, since he'd only admitted a bit ago that he hadn't broached the idea with Banner yet. His own fault, really, for having given them all the impression that he had. Still, Cap's timing couldn't have been worse for bringing up the subject. As for the good doctor, he regarded his friend with more than a little confusion.

"Assistant?"

From behind him, Stark was making discreet gestures to Cap in hopes that he would find a way to deflect that question. All in vain. The blonde super solder obligingly told Banner, "Lilith, of course. Stark said she was going to be helping you in the lab for the next few weeks."

For a moment or two, Banner just looked back at him blankly. But then he must have reached some kind of epiphany after catching sight of Thor and Loki amid the assembled group. He, apparently, understood why Stark might have told that particular lie. Didn't change the fact that it _had_ been a lie. Or that Loki now _knew_ it was.

"Oh. Well." He adjusted his glasses again, stalling for some way to recover from his surprise without admitting the news _had_ come as a surprise. "We hadn't quite worked out the details earlier, so…"

When Banner trailed off in the attempt to tell a lie of his own, Loki took it upon himself to finishing the sentence with a sly, "All the better to do so now. I'm sure the lady is interested to know what sort of _services_ she's expected to render under your _employment_."

Phrased that way and with the emphasis he laid upon 'services', no one mistook how his brother meant those words to be taken. Not that anyone- Loki included- believed them to be true at all. But they served as bait to provoke Stark's temper- or possibly even Banner's, despite the risk of a confrontation with 'the other guy'. A play for getting information out of them. No one gave a thought to Lilith until she side-stepped around Stark and advanced upon Loki with a menacing snarl.

"Something wrong," his brother queried, not in the last concerned by the woman's pique.

"I know an insult when I hear one."

"And?"

"And I don't care who you are, but you're going to take it back."

Loki would do no such thing- would, in fact, press harder now that he'd gotten the reaction he wanted. Even if it hadn't been from the intended target. Thor looked to Stark in hopes he could contain Lilith before what they both knew was coming next actually happened. Android or not, he didn't think it a good idea for her to be tangling with his brother. The billionaire nodded and approached her from behind.

"Doll- Lilith," Stark tried in a placating tone as he set a hand on her right shoulder. "Arguing with him is pointless, so just do yourself a favor and ignore him."

"Oh come now. Let's see if the lady can do any better than any of you. Although," Loki added with a smirk as he shifted his gaze back to Lilith. "I rather doubt it. But by all means, do tell me how you expect to make me 'take it back', as you put it. It's hardly _my _problem that you're so easily offended."

Lilith shrugged out of Stark's grip, took another step in his brother's direction and studied him for a full minute in frigid silence. Then two. It almost looked as though she might just do as Stark suggested and give up. But of course, Loki couldn't leave well enough alone and just let her walk away. He decided to up the ante.

"I must say that I am less than impressed. Where is your compelling argument to redeem your honor, my lady?"

Another long stretch of measuring silence.

"You like to talk a lot without saying anything of substance, don't you?"

His brother didn't take kindly to _that_ insult. Especially coming from a mortal…or someone he _thought_ was mortal, anyway. The curve of his smile took on a sharp, malevolent edge; his words were bound to be no less so.

"Maybe I would if any of you were worth the effort of saying anything truly _important_." Loki's gaze raked the woman up and down. Dismissive. Sneering. "Why would I ever waste my time on a useless creature like you?"


	4. Provocation

After a quick minute where she dealt with the gear she'd dropped unceremoniously on the bedroom floor, Nat headed back out into the hall again. She and Wanda had just returned from a mission when Pepper had asked for their help. Their friend had appeared quite stressed- a marked change from her typically poised demeanor. But given what they'd seen of Stark's android experiment, more than understandable. He'd thrown them all quite the curveball for a Monday afternoon.

_And here I was hoping to enjoy a little downtime after a week in the humid hellhole that is Miami._

Didn't sound as though she'd be getting much of that. Not with Thor and Loki in residence to put the final nail in _that_ coffin. The latter would no doubt stir things up around here if he decided to give Lilith a hard time about being an android. Nat got the impression from meeting Lilith that inquiries on that subject- even innocuous ones- were highly discouraged.

_Likely has something to do with that 'snag' Pepper had mentioned._

Another door opened and Wanda emerged from her room. "Well, that was an interesting welcome home," she said to Nat with a half-smile and a sigh.

"Interesting is one way of putting it," Nat replied with a glance to Lilith's room. "I can think of a few others."

"You think she's _really_ an android- or is this Stark's idea of a joke? I could just see him cajoling Pepper into playing a part so we'd be more likely to buy it."

It was a fair question. Everyone on the team had fallen victim to Stark's sense of humor at one time or another. Even Fury had gotten duped once or twice. The Director had sworn after the most recent hoax about the governor and that foreign correspondent that unless he had confirmation from a secondary source, he'd never take anything on Stark's word alone ever again. Lilith _could_ be his latest attempt to 'liven up the Tower'. But then again…

"He would. Except she always gives herself away with that habit of catching her bottom lip between her teeth when she's trying to keep a straight face instead of laughing; she wasn't doing it this time."

They took a few steps in the direction of the penthouse's main rooms while Wanda followed up with her counterargument. "So maybe he's playing her, too. I mean, you have to admit that Lilith looks entirely too..._human_…to be a machine."

Nat was willing to concede that point. Standing in a lineup with a random group of women, Lilith would blend in as if she were no different than the others. The production guys downstairs had outdone themselves, and she had to wonder if they hadn't broken any laws to do it. _Or gotten a few rewritten_. But her gut instinct told her that looks aside, Lilith was _exactly_ what Pepper had told them. Something about her stare warned her that a different kind of intelligence watched them from behind those hazel eyes.

She shook her head.

"I'm not sure what she is, but I'm willing to bet the answer isn't going to be 100% human. So what say we follow Pepper's example and find out what Stark has to say?" And since she couldn't be sure where the errant billionaire might be, she asked the person who knew everything. "JARVIS?"

"Yes, Ms. Romanoff?"

"Is Stark still around?"

"I believe he and everyone else are on the terrace at the moment," the AI informed her. And then as an afterthought, he added, "If you intend to join them, I would be obliged if you would inform Mr. Stark that the delivery he requested has arrived and is waiting for him on the entryway table."

"Will do," she relied, changing course for the swiftest path that would get them outside.

"I suppose 'everyone else' would include our guests from Asgard," Wanda remarked idly as she fell in step on Nat's right.

"More than likely. And something tells me that Stark didn't mention the Asgard part when he introduced them to Lilith."

_Which begs the question of why not. It's not like he can keep that little detail from getting out. Android or not, it's just not a smart idea to tangle with either of them._ Nat pushed open the glass doors and knew immediately that something had gone awry by the body language of the assembled group. Confrontational. _Very _confrontational. Stark and Bruce in particular. Those two had faced off against Loki with the former keeping Lilith behind him. _So much for thinking she'd keep a low profile. It looks like she's already become a point of contention._

She and Wanda hung back to let Stark settle whatever problem they had with the god. But before he even got the chance, Lilith took it upon herself to answer the challenge. The android exchanged a few heated words with the God of Mischief, despite any attempt made to dissuade her. Naturally, Loki did his best to escalate the conflict, baiting Lilith with several snide remarks. Although Nat knew from experience that he was being intentionally provocative, she doubted he was expecting the response he got.

"You like to talk a lot without saying anything of substance, don't you?"

Beside her, Wanda sucked in a sharp breath and muttered to herself, "Oh- oh he's not going to take that well _at all_."

An assessment Nat couldn't disagree with. Loki's rejoinder left no doubt that he'd taken offense, tone openly belligerent as he sneered, "Maybe I would if any of you were worth the effort of saying anything truly _important_. Why would I ever waste my time on a useless creature like you?" She couldn't see Lilith's expression from this angle, but clearly those words didn't have the desired impact. If nothing else, her reaction served only to infuriate the god even more. "That most definitely _was_ an insult, mortal, since you claimed to be so _skilled_ in detecting them."

_He doesn't realize she's an android._ An epiphany that caught Nat by surprise. Of anyone, she would have thought Loki would recognize the subtle differences that marked her as not quite human. And even if he hadn't, she would have expected Stark to have explained it all when he'd introduced her to the gods. Yet another omission with no rational explanation. _Leaving me to ask what _irrational_ reasons might have influenced his behavior._

A puzzle, but not one she was going to solve right now. Lilith drew her attention back to the present conversation.

"Oh I know."

"You'll have to forgive me for thinking otherwise, given that when derided, most people don't grin like fools."

"You do."

Dead silence. Shocked expressions. All except Loki's, of course. His had darkened to match the depth of his fury. The god took a step in Lilith's direction, possibly with the intent to shift their confrontation from merely verbal to physical. Thor intercepted him before he could make good on that intent.

"Brother, enough. Leave the woman be."

Loki shot him a look of contempt. "I most certainly will _not_. If you think I am going to accept such insolence from that-" he let out an indignant huff. "That pathetic excuse of a mortal…"

Unimpressed with his brother's outrage, the Thunder god's tone remained implacable as he said, "I'll remind you of our agreement."

"Damn our _agreement_. She-"

"_You_ started it, Loki, and so you only got what you deserved. Now I won't warn you again. Leave her be." Loki was clearly unhappy at having to back down, and offered his capitulation by way of sullenly resentful silence. _Somehow, I doubt this is the last we'll hear about _this_ subject._ Thor then turned to Lilith, his demeanor slightly less intimidating as he addressed her next. "You'll have to forgive my brother, Lady, but I would ask that you do as Stark suggested and just ignore him."

"Just ignore him," she repeated quietly.

_Oh here we go._

Thor assumed Lilith was agreeing with him; Nat knew better. She cast a glance sideways at Wanda, who had likewise guessed that whatever the woman was about to say next, it would not be pleasant. Nothing either of them could do to stop it, so they stood back and watched the show.

"Well, you'll have to forgive _me_ for ignoring that suggestion," her words laced with scathing sarcasm. Thor was too dumbstruck by them to react, allowing Lilith to follow up with, "Why should your brother be allowed to intentionally hurt other people's feelings and face no repercussions for it? What makes _him_ so special?"

Tension crackled in the air as her question was met with stunned silence. Nat was curious to see how the god would answer. She'd often thought that they weren't doing themselves- or Loki- any favors by placating his ego during these visits. It never seemed to make him more inclined to change his opinions about Earth and humankind on the whole. Had only given him _more_ reason to reinforce the view that they were inferior.

_So maybe Lilith has the right idea in calling him out on his bullshit._

* * *

After a moment or two of flummoxed silence, the tall, broad-shouldered 'out of town guest' grasped for an answer to my question. "You have to understand, Lilith. My brother and I are not like the rest of you. We are gods of Asgard."

Asgard. A word that triggered a cache of memories to rush to the forefront of my consciousness. _Synthetic synapses…what_ever_._ I thrust that detail aside to focus on the information itself. Unless I was mistaken- and I doubted it- he was referring to Norse mythology. Asgard was the realm home to a pantheon of gods able to cross into Midgard, the realm of mortals, by using a magical bridge called the Bifrost.

I had only barely processed that when the rest hit me. Thor. Stark and the others had called him Thor. As in Thor Odinson, the Thunder god of Asgard. My gaze flicked to his dark-haired brother behind him and back. _Meaning that would be Loki Laufeyson, the God of Mischief._ I had to take a mental step backward before letting my imagination run away with me.

_He_ can't_ be serious. It's called _mythology_ for a reason. Asgard isn't _real_. Gods don't exist._

_And a few hours ago you didn't believe you were an android, _my thoughts argued back.

_ Touché, _I conceded with an inward sigh. So, maybe they _were_ who they said they were: gods from another realm. _That still isn't a satisfactory answer. Thor will have to do better than that if he wants my cooperation._

"So what," I fired back stubbornly.

From behind me, I heard Stark cough, though it sounded more like he was doing his best not to laugh. Wasn't sure what he found so funny. But whatever amusement he derived, it wasn't shared by the god in front of me- either of them. Well, I wasn't entirely sure how to read Loki's expression. On the one hand, he clearly didn't appreciate that my dismissive attitude; on the other, I sensed he was enjoying Thor's consternation.

_A study in contradiction, that one._

_ So I noticed._

Our brief exchange had already given me an impression that his was not a straightforward personality. Words that said one thing; eyes that said another; demeanor and tone that intentionally drew one's attention away from both. Contradiction? More like outright deception. Not that I was _surprised_, given what I knew of him. Misdirection, prevarication and outright lies ranked high on the God of Mischief's list of credentials.

_That may be, but I see nothing admirable about any of them._

"Well, I-" Thor stammered over his reply, and then cast a look over my head. "What do I tell her?"

"Don't ask me." Whatever the Thunder god might have said next was lost as Stark raised his voice to call out in a cheerful- almost _too_ cheerful- greeting, "Nat. Wanda. You settled in fast. Come out to join the rest of us?"

He made it sound as if they'd only just arrived. They hadn't. Had, in fact, been hovering on the far side of the terrace since my initial exchange with Loki. I'd seen them arrive out of the corner of my eye, but ignored them, just as everyone else had. Until now. I got the distinct impression that Stark had picked this moment to call attention to them in hopes of redirecting the conversation. An impression that irked the hell out of me, since his plan showed signs of working. The two women crossed the open space and stood next to Pepper.

"Lot of excitement going on out here," Nat commented with mild curiosity, her sharp gaze travelling over the group. "Not quite the peaceful break we'd expected to get after taking care of Fury's problem in Miami."

"Just a lively debate amongst friends," Stark answered. No one believed him for a minute, but that didn't deter him from pushing on to say, "We were just about finished, though."

From where I stood, nothing had been resolved between me and the gods of Asgard. An opinion Loki shared, if I hadn't misread the suppressed frustration in his expression. He, at least, would have preferred to see this disagreement through. Likely because he expected to win it. His brother, on the other hand, eagerly took the alternative Stark offered. Especially if it meant he wouldn't have to address my last question.

"That we were," the god agreed heartily, although it came across as too forced to be genuine. "And I'm sure you and Bruce were wanting to show Lilith around his lab, anyway."

"Right. We've got a few hours yet in the day, so this'd be an opportune time to give her the grand tour."

Opportune if he meant it was a _convenient_ time to get me away from the Asgardians- the God of Mischief in particular. I'd already been to the doctor's lab before coming up to the penthouse. But not even Bruce seemed inclined to remind Stark of that fact. One solid wall of male agreement.

_Well, except for Loki. I bet if I drive a wedge into that wall, he might be inclined to aim a few blows of his own- even if his intent is to knock me down with them._

As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, Stark slipped an arm around my shoulders and herded me in the direction of the penthouse. A very pointed means of ending the discussion. _Not to mention a high-handed one_. He circled wide of the gods and put himself between me and them. An action that garnered him a speculating look from Nat.

We'd nearly reached the edge of the terrace when Wanda called out, "Hey Stark- JARVIS asked us to tell you about a delivery. He said it's on the entryway table."

"Thanks." He nodded as Bruce caught up. "I'll pick it up on our way out."

The three of us passed through the glass door. I waited until it had swung closed behind us before rounding on the two men. "Stark, what in the-"

"I know, I know," he cut me off. "You're likely wondering what all that was about with the assistant thing. It just sort of came up on the spot."

I _was_ wondering about that, but it wasn't foremost in question I wanted answered just now. In truth, I suspected I could guess what prompted him to invent my occupational backstory. Rather, _who_. And with that in mind, I aimed a disapproving frown in his direction.

"Why didn't you just tell Loki what I am?" Ignoring his pained grimace, I added, "After all, we agreed that we would be open about my being an android before you brought me up here."

"We did, but…"

"But?"

I'd shuffled to a halt, causing both of them to stop, too. Stark glanced towards the wall of glass windows, and then tried to usher me forward again. I didn't budge, folding my arms across my chest. Not a word, just one very eloquently arched eyebrow. He capitulated with a half-hearted shoulder shrug.

"The Trickster is a special case of sorts. Needs a different approach."

The same answer that Thor had given me; I didn't like it any better this time around. Nor did I like where I suspected this 'different approach' was headed.

"You don't expect me to pretend I'm human when I'm around him, do you?" Embarrassed silence. Not the answer I wanted to hear. I shook my head. "I won't do it, even if I thought for a moment he would actually _believe_ me."

"Lilith, please. It's just for a few days."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Stark actually wanted me to pretend I was human. How could he ask that of me, knowing that this would only make it that much harder for me to accept what I truly was? That he did know, and asked anyway, came as a disappointment. One I ought to express, but couldn't bring myself to say aloud.

Bruce broke the silence with a wary, "I don't think that's a good idea, Stark. Loki is sure to work it out- especially if the rest of the team knows. He'll make a bigger deal about her if he thinks you had a reason to hide this from him." A long pause followed without any response. "Stark? You _don't_, right?"

"Of course not."

"Then why-" he looked over at me and cut his question short. "Never mind."

"Never mind _what_," I demanded sharply.

No answer. Just a weary sigh from Stark. This time, he didn't try to shepherd me with him as he headed for the elevator. Just started walking. I traded a questioning look with Bruce and did the only thing I could do: I followed him. Managed to catch up just as Stark hefted a large manila envelope in his left hand. Without even breaking his stride, he tucked it under his arm and covered the last few yards to the elevator.

I came up to stand on his right, not quite sure what to do. I wanted answers, and felt I deserved them. But something about the shift in his mood kept me from pressing him for any. And then the elevator arrived to take us back downstairs, closing my window of opportunity. Reluctantly, I stepped inside and rode the few floors in brooding silence.

When the doors opened again, Stark directed his opening question to Bruce, "So, are you up for this?"

"I think that's a better question to put to Lilith," he answered after a pause. "She needs to know what she's getting into."

_Well that sounds ominous. Just what _am_ I getting into?_

* * *

Bruce had a point. If Lilith was going to be spending time in his lab, she ought to know about "the other guy". Unlikely that anything should happen over the next few weeks that could provoke the doctor's uglier side…but it was better not to take any chances. Especially if she approached him with the same challenging attitude she'd thrown at Thor.

_And Loki._

He hadn't been at all prepared for _that_ confrontation. After the meltdown in the lab and her desperate plea in the hallway, he'd expected her to retreat from any hostility aimed in her direction. Apparently, he'd been mistaken. He _wouldn't_ have been so surprised if he'd recalled his impressions of Lilith when they'd first met in the QC lab downstairs. She certainly hadn't backed away from a fight _then_. The Trickster's sly jab must have been enough to rekindle her temper.

_If she and the Hulk get into an argument, it could get a bit messy around here._

Although if he had to _choose_, he supposed that he'd rather she tangled with the Hulk instead of Loki. The former, at least, was a battle he could predict. Would she end up hurt? Almost certainly. But at least the damage would only be physical- something that could be repaired. But with the Trickster…the wrong move _there_ and Lilith could end up hurt in other, more _permanent_ ways. Ways Tony doubted he could fix.

_She seemed to be holding her own against him._

_ Yeah, but who's to say she'll walk away unscathed _next_ time_, he argued back. _And I'm still not certain this victory won't be without consequences._

Nor could Tony really call it a victory. At least not on his part. He'd only managed to dig himself in a much deeper hole with the god. In the hall, Loki had merely suspected he wasn't being entirely truthful about Lilith; now he knew for certain. But instead of admitting defeat and telling the Trickster who she was, Tony had double-downed on his story. Had even dragged Thor into it.

_And now you're trying to force Lilith to play along, _his thoughts added with a heavy dose of censure. _Who can blame her for being angry with you for even suggesting it?_

_ It's only temporary, _he protested._ A day or two at the most until I sort out a way to untangle this mess._

_ You say that like it's actually possible._

Ignoring that last remark, Tony headed for the lab. Luckily, Bruce had left it unlocked, so he was able to walk right in. Lilith was only a few steps behind, her expression serious when she circled around to face him. "What did he mean by that," she asked with a nod to Bruce. "When he said I should know what I'm in for."

Silence fell as he searched for a description of the Hulk that was accurate, but wouldn't send her running for the hills. In the end, his friend did the answering for him, explaining, "Long story, but the short version of it goes like this: When I'm under stress, I tend to morph into a giant, green force of destruction."

Lilith regarded both of them for a long moment. She might have been debating whether she ought to believe a word of what he'd said, or her chances of escaping the Tower. Tony couldn't tell. And then she gave them an odd sort of smile.

"Well, I guess we have something in common, then," she quipped wryly. "Except for the turning green part."

Humor. Not the typical reaction by a long shot. And yet another mood switch that Tony couldn't have anticipated. Lilith truly was exploring the full range of human emotions this afternoon, catching him flat-footed at just about every turn.

_Met your match, have you?_

_ What's _that_ supposed to mean?_ No answer, just enigmatic silence that worried him. A lot.

"I guess we do," Bruce mused. Neither he nor Lilith noticed that Tony had dropped out of the conversation. "Although I suspect in orders of magnitude, my alter ego would have a slight advantage over yours."

"So what you're saying is I should avoid picking a fight with Dr. Jekyll if I don't want Mr. Hyde to finish it?"

The joke earned not only a smile from the good doctor, but a chuckle as well. "Something to that effect, yes."

"I think I can handle that." Lilith's gaze caught on a rack of test tubes on the lab counter and her own smile sharpened. "But fair warning- that doesn't mean I'll tiptoe around this place. Give me a reason to pick a fight and I'll give you one."

"Fair enough."

Tony had regained enough of his balance at that point to join the discussion. "It's settled, then? We're doing this?"

"I'm in," Lilith said with a nod. "Bruce?"

"Strange to say it, but yeah, looks like I'll have an assistant for the next few weeks."

_Step one accomplished._

And half of the battle won, even if it wasn't the hardest one. Tony hadn't been completely sure either of them would go for this arrangement. More so Bruce than Lilith. The doctor's last attempt to bring in some help had been an utter disaster. A smart kid- probably would have done all right as an assistant in any other lab. Just not _this_ one. A clash in personality and a bit of an ego did not sit well will Bruce.

_Or the Hulk, for that matter,_ he added.

"Just, um, what sort of work do you do," Lilith asked with another look around the lab. "I mean, I don't know anything about medicine." She paused with a puzzled frown. "Or at least I don't _think_ I know. My recall is a bit…random, I'm noticing."

"No worries about that," Bruce quickly assured her. "Medicine is more of a side job. Comes in handy with the sort of work the team does. Most of my time is spent on physics research- specializing in gamma radiation."

_Now that's an understatement._

"Oh. And so I'd be…?"

"Helping me record findings and organizing some of my older research. It's been a chaotic few years and everything's still haphazardly packed away in boxes. Just never seems to be the time to get around to it."

"I dunno how far I'll get in two weeks, but I'm sure any progress is better than none."

Tony aimed to turn two weeks into a much more permanent timeframe, whether she chose to stay on with Bruce or decided to do something else. But now that she'd reminded him of the clock counting down the precious few days he had to accomplish that goal, he remembered the real reason he'd wanted to come down here.

"Sounds like quite the project," he said. "Bruce- I'm guessing you won't have any of that ready today?"

"You're right. Half of my research isn't even at the Tower. I'll have to get it out of storage."

_Just what I was hoping you'd say._

Tony looked to Lilith as he shifted gears. "Since we're down here already- you up to start on the other thing?"

She stared at the packet in his hand, apprehension skittering across her face. Decent indication of what her answer would be. Had to try, though. This afternoon would be his best opportunity to work on this puzzle until Wednesday at the earliest and Tony was reluctant to let it pass him by.

"Not really," Lilith began slowly. "But I doubt waiting for another time will change that answer, so we might as well start now."

"You sure?"

Still looking at the envelope, she set her chin and replied with a determined, "Yeah."

Tony gestured for the door, allowing her to precede him into the corridor sandwiched between his lab and Bruce's. Over his shoulder, he called back to the other Avenger, "We'll catch you upstairs at dinner?"

"Depends on how long it takes me to drag out all of my old notes," his friend replied. "Could be a late night."

"Then I guess we'll see you tomorrow morning." He ducked out of the doorway and headed for the entrance to his lab, punching in his security access code out of sheer muscle memory. The lock released with a subtle click, allowing him to push the door open for Lilith. "After you, Doll." That last part slipped out before he could stop it, and he winced. "Dammit, that's _twice_. Sorry, Lilith."

She crossed the threshold and gave him a head tilt. "Sorry for what?"

"I keep forgetting not to call you 'Doll' like I do with the rest of the ladies in the Tower." Tony let the door close behind him as he threaded his way through the chaos that was his personal workspace. "After the whole thing earlier…"

"Oh." She paused to think. "It really doesn't bother me. Not _now_, anyway. You don't have to make any special exceptions on my account."

He gathered up a partially dismantled project currently occupying a generous portion of his main workstation, not quite sure she was telling him the truth. Once he'd got a space cleared off, he set the packet from Connie down. Still hadn't said anything as his thumb worked under the metal prongs of the envelope fastener. He was just pulling the massive ream of paper free when Lilith must have felt the need to prompt him for a response.

"I mean it, Stark. You may call me Doll if you like."

Tony regarded her in thoughtful silence for a minute or two and then said, "All right, but only if _you_ agree to call me Tony."

* * *

You_ do._

Lilith's words replayed themselves in his head as he watched Stark scurry off under the guise of giving her a tour of Banner's lab. Loki still didn't believe that she was his assistant. But for the moment, he was glad to be rid of her, regardless of the reason. She'd actually managed to ruin his fun. A feat all the more irritating because she hadn't been his intended target.

_Hadn't counted on the rabbit to be a fox in disguise._ Loki's eyes narrowed. _A cunning one at that._

She reminded him of Romanoff in some ways. Although, not even the Black Widow had ever dared to speak to him the way this mortal had. Nor had Stark, for that matter. The latter had done his fair share of flinging insults in Loki's direction. Sometimes as jesting banter; sometimes in heated anger. But never in that dispassionate, clinical tone. The one that dared him to deny that she'd spoken the truth.

Except she _had_.

He _did_ tend to obfuscate and misdirect a conversation by filling it with empty words that _sounded_ meaningful. Using that tactic had always served Loki well, allowing him to evade prying questions with the potential to ruin his plans. Useful for sending his adversaries on futile side-excursions as they chased imaginary leads he'd given them. Thanks to Lilith, he would have to rethink whether it would be safe to keep that particular weapon in his arsenal. At least for the next few weeks.

_And let's not even discuss the _other_ thing she said._

_Which other thing? The part where she dismissed the superiority of gods over mortals…or when she told you that you foolishly take insults with a smile?_

Feeling it beneath him to waste any thought on the first of those, Loki opted to tackle the latter. _It is _not_ foolish_, he retorted. _Quite the opposite in fact. Showing anger is what your enemy wants- gives them the upper hand. But a smile…_

How many had been disarmed by that ruse just long enough to regret having uttered their unflattering comments? A fair number, to be sure. And those who weren't gullible enough to be taken in had walked away from the exchange uneasy and dismayed. When he'd _let_ them walk away, anyway.

"Brother, are you listening to me," Thor demanded with impatience, cutting into Loki's argument with himself.

Veiling his own annoyance beneath a bland mask of indifference, he shrugged. "I don't see any reason why I should."

"I'd say you have every reason to. Unless you leave the Lady alone and quit provoking Stark about her, you'll find yourself back on Asgard before the day is out."

As much as he hated to admit it, Thor had a point. Stark had ordered him to stay away from Lilith a short while ago, and it wasn't smart to disobey that warning less than an hour later. But the lure of having fun at the braggart's expense had temporarily overpowered his better judgement; having it result in an altercation with the lady herself didn't help matters.

_Meaning there's a very good chance Stark may be inclined to follow through with his threat. _A moment or two passed while he contemplated the possible outcomes and reconsidered his initial assessment. _Or perhaps not._

He hadn't missed Stark's almost desperate expression when his would-be assistant refused to back down against Loki's challenge. In his effort to derail _her_, Stark had hardly spared a glance in _his_ direction. If he was lucky, the hapless mortal would continue to focus his efforts on keeping Lilith away from him instead of ordering Loki back to Asgard. So maybe he did have one small reason to thank her for interfering where she wasn't invited.

_Emphasis on the _small _aspect_, he amended silently. _And even that doesn't absolve her of the offenses she committed against me. Rest assured…I will see those repaid_ in kind_._

Mentioning any of that to Thor would be pointless at best, a mistake at worst, and so he opted for prevarication. "Such dramatics, Thor. I hardly see what you hope to gain by them. Especially as you're only repeating what I've already heard once today."

Rather than discourage the oaf from pressing the subject, Loki's flippant tone only spurred Thor on. And to add insult to injury, the Tower residents who hadn't left the terrace chose to linger so that they might witness the spectacle. The blond soldier boy and Stark's business partner didn't concern him, but Loki would rather that Romanoff and the Scarlet Witch weren't present.

_Would prefer not to have this discussion at all, but since he's set his heart on it, better not to have _those_ two listening in._

"All the more reason for me to repeat it," Thor repeated tersely. "Since you don't seem inclined to take the warning seriously. So I'll add my order to Stark's- you are to leave Lady Lilith alone."

Unable to resist, Loki arched an eyebrow and queried, "And if I _don't_?"

"I've already said- you'll go back to Asgard. Rest assured, I'll make the Allfather aware of the reasons why."

He heard the unspoken threat there. Forget the question of whether he would be allowed back on Midgard; if Odin took exception to Thor's account- and Loki was certain he would not be painted in a flattering light- he could expect many of his former restrictions to be reinstated while he was on Asgard. A monumental and totally unacceptable step backwards in terms of his own plans. And one that warranted careful consideration.

_Why is he making this out to be so important? Stark I understand, but to have _Thor_ so adamantly in support of protecting this mortal woman…something more is going on. More than I initially thought._

Loki admitted to himself that his curiosity was sufficiently piqued. Granted, he still didn't expect to discover anything truly _important_ in the end. At best, Lilith was a new member of their team with a mildly unique skill. The _what_ didn't really matter to him. Or even the _why_. Loki's primary interest stemmed from wanting to prove he could outsmart the oh-so-celebrated Avengers, and trick them into revealing something they were so determined to hide.

_And since we've already begun on a confrontational note, might as well make the most of it._ Wouldn't be hard to do. Like most people, Thor tended to say more when provoked beyond his ability to think. _Which, let's be honest, isn't all that impressive in general._

"I sense you expect that threat is an effective deterrent on my part," he remarked with more than a trace of smug insolence. "And I suppose it does sound ominous. But in your place, I might have saved an ultimatum of that magnitude for an occasion that truly warranted it. A verbal skirmish- and a _minor_ one at that- is hardly worthy of such measures." Loki turned away, as if intending to leave the terrace. Before he reached the glass door, he called back to the brainless wonder, "I'm sure by this evening, this whole incident will be largely forgotten."

Fingertips resting on the polished, metal handle, he delayed just long enough to dare Thor to contradict him. And, as expected, his baiting taunt proved too much to be ignored.

"You're mistaken, Brother. If you don't heed what I tell you, you will easily find yourself an enemy amongst the mortals of the Tower- not to mention Lilith."

Potts' indrawn breath caught ever so slightly at those last four words, drawing Loki's attention. Focused it on what they might mean. He weighed them against everything he'd seen and heard thus far, reaching a tentative conclusion. Nothing certain. Not yet. Far too many unknowns yet to be _certain_. But Thor had definitely opened a door for him to walk through. Loki said nothing for a long minute and then offered a calculating smile.

"How _interesting_."

Thor's brows drew together in confusion. Not quite recognizing the mistake he'd likely just made. "Interesting how?"

"Interesting that you call _Lilith_ out in particular." The frown quickly vanished, as Thor struggled to hide the grimace that took its place. Trap set and sprung. Loki basked in how easy this first battle had been to win, allowing himself the luxury of letting the buffoon _know_ he'd won by asking, "After all, what _is_ Lilith if she's _not_ one of the mortals inhabiting the Tower?"


End file.
